Vaccination in Peru!

It has been said that the only way out of the global pandemic is vaccination. Peru is no different. However, there are obstacles that Peruvians are facing with restricted vaccine access, vaccine hesitancy, and outbreaks the vaccine has not prevented.

How Many People Have Been Vaccinated?

According to CTV news, as of July 12th 2021, Peru has only fully vaccinated 9.27% of their population, which is a devastating low number compared to most other countries; it puts Peru below the world average of 11.04% and placed 127th in the world. While Peru has obtained enough doses to vaccinate it's entire population, the vaccine has had an especially slow rollout.

Why Is the Vaccine Not Lowering the Covid-19 Numbers?

There are many reasons why the vaccine is not reducing the covid numbers as much as it was originally hoped.

1. Many parts of Peru have become overcrowded with people shopping for necessities for themselves and their families. This has caused many outbreaks and allows Covid-19 to spread easily.

President Viscarra said "You would buy, you would get infected, you would go home with the virus, and you would spread it to the whole family." This is exactly what is happening.

2. The second reason that the vaccine was not reducing the covid numbers as much as it was hoped is because of money. Many people in Peru fall below the poverty line. They are struggling to pay for food and shelter. They do not have enough money to buy masks to prevent COVID, which allows the virus to spread easily and infect more people.

Vaccine Hesitancy in Peru

In Peru there are many reasons that people are hesitating to take the vaccine but, I can assure you they are not the reasons you are thinking of. In Canada and the United States of America many people are afraid to take the Covid-19 vaccine because they are afraid that the government might have put a microchip in the vaccine and try to track them. On the other hand, Peruvians are afraid to take the vaccine because it might make them sick or take them off work for a couple of days. Many of us know that once you get your vaccine you feel sick for 1-2 after getting the vaccine. You would not be able to work for those days. This is a huge problem for Peruvians. As mentioned earlier, they need all the money and support they can get, so taking even one day off work is not an option.