Shillong, July 29: Vaccination hesitation has been one of the major challenges that most districts in the state are facing. Mawhati Constituency MLA, Dasakhiat Lamare has also shown concern about the same problem in his constituency.

Lamare informed that people are afraid of the vaccine. The NPP legislator said all the authorities have been working hard to spread an awareness about the need to take the vaccine.

“I will be taking my second dose this week and will get it done in Nongpoh. Will make arrangements to call the local headmen and traditional heads of different villages in the programme and will brief them about it so it might bring some help,” said Lamare.

He added that the vaccine hesitancy and fear among the people in his constituency is very critical. He mentioned that it has been difficult to convince them and he felt that vaccine is the only way forward.

Lamare informed that religious and political are the major fears among the people.

“By political I mean the same situation like how the enrollment for aadhaar was witnessed.

People were hesitant to enroll and had a lot of fear. There were several conspiracies that people had in their minds. Similar things are happening with the vaccine also,” said Lamare.

The health department along with the concerned authorities have also decided to engage religious leaders. And many of these religious leaders have been spreading awareness about the need to take the vaccine.

When asked if he needed to adopt some strategy to encourage people to take the vaccine,

Lamare said that he has a few strategies in mind which is different from other legislators.
Recently legislators like Lahkmen Rymbui and Wailad Shylla had adopted certain strategy like giving money and ration, which saw good turnout for the vaccination.

Lamare mentioned that the COVID situation in Mawhati is better than it was three months ago, though positive cases are still there.

However, he has emphasized that there is a need to do more. “We can’t force people to take the vaccine, the only solution is to keep trying,” said Lamare.

He also condemned people involving in spreading misinformation and has urged citizens to take the vaccine since that was the only medicine that can reduce the severity of the virus.