Senators on Tuesday urged the government to intensify its information campaign regarding the COVID-19 vaccines that will be used in the rollout of the vaccination program to address the public’s hesitation and fear to get inoculated.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the high vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos, as shown in the recent surveys, poses a serious risk to the success of the government’s inoculation program.

Drilon said the government’s COVID-19 vaccination process ought to be “transparent and truthful” to help the public understand and build up their confidence in the vaccines.

“Transparency is a key driver of public confidence in vaccines. The lack of access to information fuels doubts and confusion among the public,” he said.

Drilon had earlier warned that the reluctance of the people to participate in the COVID-19 immunization program would spell trouble in the future and jeopardize efforts to contain the pandemic.

In a recent nationwide Pulse Asia survey of 2,400 adults, 47 percent of Filipinos would not get themselves vaccinated, 32 percent would get vaccinated, and 21 percent are undecided. Of the 2,400 adults who joined the survey, 84 percent are worried about the safety of the vaccine.

In a survey conducted by the University of the Philippines-OCTA Research Group on 600 participants from Metro Manila aged 18 and above, only 25 percent are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The same survey showed that 28 percent refuse to get vaccinated, while 47 percent are still undecided.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the failure to convince the public of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines would prolong pandemic woes and prevent the safe reopening of schools.

For the basic education sector, he said, a prolonged delay in the resumption of in-person or face-to-face classes for more than 22 million public school learners nationwide would be problematic.

“Magiging malaki ang problema natin kung walang magpapabakuna laban sa COVID. Hindi tayo makakabalik sa normal na pamumuhay (It would be a huge problem if no one would choose to be vaccinated against COVID. We cannot return to a normal life),” said Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts, and Culture.

“Dapat nating tugunan ang pangamba ng ating mga mamamayan pagdating sa pagpapabakuna upang matuldukan na natin ang krisis na ito (We should put an end to the anxiety of our people when it comes to vaccination so we can put a stop to this crisis once and for all),” the senator said.

Gatchalian had earlier warned the government to brace itself for the “aggravation of the current learning crisis and a likely spike of learners with poor performance” due to the loss of face-to-face instructions.

The lawmaker had appealed to the government to exhaust all efforts and resources and implement measures to help students catch up in their studies after it scrapped its plan to conduct a dry run of a limited physical classes as a precautionary measure against a new COVID-19 variant now spreading around the world.

“2021 will be a very challenging year for both our learners and our teachers in light of the absence of face-to-face classes,” he said.

Gatchalian also reiterated his call for the national task force against COVID-19 to include teachers in the priority groups once the vaccines are available.