UN Women helps women get information about vaccinations
Date:
Vaccination is the only way to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, but due to the global flow of disinformation and misconceptions that spread in society, many people are skeptical and have questions about it, including in Georgia.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Public Health, 67 per cent of vaccinated citizens in Georgia between 15 March and 15 July 2021 were women, while 33 per cent were men. It is noteworthy that in terms of health issues and dissemination of important information in their own communities, women take the initiative. Accordingly, UN Women has decided to do its utmost to inform the active women who are involved in UN Women projects in different regions of Georgia, those who already make a valuable contribution to the positive changes and who can play an important role in accelerating vaccination by disseminating accurate information to the local population.
To this end, on 16 August at the initiative of UN Women, Ana Kasradze, Head of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Division of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia, and Nino Mchedlishvili, an allergist-immunologist, held an online meeting. They informed around 50 women in the regions on the role of vaccination, the availability of vaccines, the vaccination of those with allergies and other important issues, as well as tried to dispel the commonly unleashed myths existing around vaccination. The meeting ended with questions and answers.
“It is women who are often active with regard to the health of their family members, their visits to physicians or other medical services,” noted Dr. Mchedlishvili. “Their health and strength is directly reflected on their family members as well. Not everyone, especially the population in the regions, has the opportunity to consult a doctor and get access to reliable sources of information, which became clear from the questions asked at today’s meeting. Therefore, such events are extremely important.”
Ekaterine Tsikhiseli, who attended the meeting from the mountainous region of Racha, remarked: “Vaccination is a very important topic not only for me but also for many people around me. I had been looking forward to this meeting since the moment it was announced, and I was also armed with questions. We, the women, received important answers, and with their help, the suspicions concerning vaccination were dispelled.”
The video recording of the meeting will be uploaded to the Facebook page of the special group “Women against COVID-19”, which was initiated by UN Women at the very beginning of the pandemic and which brings together hundreds of women involved in various projects. In this way, this important information will be made available to people who were unable to attend the meeting.