Ukrainian medics lead way in COVID-19 vaccine campaign
Doctors and nurses urge others to follow their lead and keep their communities healthy.
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The COVID-19 vaccination campaign is underway in Ukraine, with doctors, nurses and paramedics among the first to be protected.
But Mariupol doctors are hoping that, as well as protecting medical teams, they will encourage Ukrainians to join the vaccination campaign.
Paramedic Anna Moiseieva says that doctors have very high risks of infection when visiting COVID-19 patients.
"Sometimes they call us because of something else, but we have a completely different diagnosis when we arrive,” she explains. “Therefore, I believe that doctors must be vaccinated. We are the first to face this disease, and we need to be protected.”
She says her vaccination was painless and she feels fine.
It is the first time in his career that ambulance driver Oleksandr Buba has faced such a large-scale epidemic. Understandably, he has been worried for his own safety and the safety of his family members.
“We often carry COVID-19 patients,” he says. “And to protect my family, I decided to get vaccinated. When you face such serious diseases, when you see people dying, you have to think about safety.”
Healthcare professional Zhanna Antonova had no concerns about receiving the vaccination, because she knows it is a safe and necessary intervention.
“Any medical procedure can have side effects, including vaccination," she says. “But I believe that the likelihood of negative side effects with vaccination is much lower than with the disease. Therefore, I think it is necessary to get vaccinated."
Paramedic Oleksandr Konovalov fell ill with COVID-19 last year. He was forced to take three weeks of sick leave and will do anything he can to avoid contracting it again.
"It is necessary to vaccinate," he says. “Because you want to be healthy, work, help people, do your work, study, not get sick.”
Patient safety is as critical to Oleksandr as his own, and the vaccination gives him confidence that he will not endanger his elderly patients.
“COVID-19 may be asymptomatic. The ambulance team can bring the disease to the patient’s home even without knowing it. And our patients are often elderly people. Physicians definitely need to show people by their example that vaccination is safe, everyone has to do it. After all, we are a group of people who are at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic."
Doctor Daryna Gordiienko works in her hospital’s emergency department and comes into contact with many patients every day. She did not hesitate to be vaccinated.
“I work every day with new people who come to the department to get help, without tests," she explains. “Therefore, my risk of getting infected is very high. I also live with my parents who have a cardiovascular disease and I am afraid of infecting them. Therefore, it is better to protect yourself, get vaccinated. Prevention is the best treatment.”
On behalf of COVAX, UNICEF is leading efforts to procure and supply doses of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. Under COVAX, Ukraine has already received 590,850 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 1,072,800 doses of AstraZeneca free of charge.
Together with the governments of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, and other donors, UNICEF is working to ensure that more people in Ukraine receive protection from COVID-19. Deliveries of vaccines from various manufacturers under COVAX will continue, and it is expected that by the end of 2021 this will allow to cover up to 20% of the population of Ukraine - 8 million people.
Additionally, UNICEF is working with the Government to ensure that Ukraine is ready to receive the vaccines, with appropriate cold chain equipment in place and health workers trained to dispense them. UNICEF is also playing a lead role in national efforts to foster trust in vaccines, delivering vaccine confidence communications and tracking and addressing misinformation across the country.
