SHAFAQNA- Despite having the COVID-19 vaccine and launching a vaccination campaign, Iraq is seeing little public acceptance for the vaccine. The vaccination rate is far below the global average of 54% and a far cry from the World Health Organization’s goal of getting at least 70% of residents of every country fully vaccinated by the end of June.
Iraq has three brands of COVID vaccine available: AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Pfizer-BioNTech. Some Iraqis refuse to get the second dose because they got flu-like symptoms after the first one. Monira Muzher, an Iraqi nurse who answers people’s questions and tries to persuade them to get vaccinated, says tries to assure them that any side effects from the vaccine aren’t nearly as bad as the disease itself.
This news is translated by Shafaqna English.