By: Staff Writer
March 28, 2023
The Council of Americas (AS/COA) laid down four pillars to lead Latin American and Caribbean countries in the post COVID-19 era, urging countries not to go back to antiquated delivery systems for healthcare.
Their report, “After the Pandemic: Considerations for COVID-19 Prevention and Treatment in Latin America and the Caribbean,” lays out four pillars for moving forward after the pandemic, which are: messaging regarding COVID-19, healthcare financing, defining a post-pandemic era, and the importance of collaboration at the domestic and international levels.
The report said: “The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented devastation in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to exacerbating the deep social and economic inequalities, panelists noted that the pandemic further weakened already fragmented health systems, exposing how ill-prepared many countries were to handle a crisis of this magnitude. When COVID-19 hit Latin America and the Caribbean, most countries in the region didn’t have a health system that had the capacity to respond effectively or efficiently because of a lack of critical infrastructure. At the same time, as health services became overwhelmed by the massive demand for hospital care for COVID-19 patients, treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) was neglected, which in the long-run posed a higher financial burden to the system.”
Steve Liston, Senior Director of the AS/COA, said about the report: “We brought together a lot of experts across a lot of different sectors to ask the question: What lessons should we learn moving forward? What is the important things that we don’t want to lose?”
The report added: “Countries around the world implemented COVID-19 vaccination campaigns as an ongoing effort to vaccinate large numbers of people in order to ensure protection from the disease. Achieving successful distribution, affordability, accessibility, and acceptability of the vaccine and maintaining high vaccination rates remain central challenges for the region. Despite the widespread availability of effective COVID-19 vaccines, many individuals still hesitate to get vaccinated, which has prevented countries from achieving successful immunization programs. Hesitancy around vaccination is grounded in insufficient knowledge, lack of confidence in the benefits of vaccination, or overconfidence in one’s ability to avoid the disease.”
It also said: “When it comes to promoting COVID-19 vaccines, roundtable participants stressed the essential need to build trust among the population. This starts with health professionals. Healthcare providers are consistently ranked as the most reliable and trusted source of information on vaccines, and frequently patients who were hesitant to get vaccinated would establish dialogue with them to share their concerns and seek answers. During the pandemic, some health professionals in the region joined the anti-vaccine and anti-technology groups due to a lack of education and understanding of the disease and the vaccine. Some physicians or primary care doctors lacked a meaningful understanding of the goals of the vaccination plans so they were not able to educate the population nor help promote the aims of the vaccination campaigns. Many health professionals lacked the necessary skills to communicate effectively with general public. Together, these deficiencies among healthcare professionals fuelled the overall lack of trust in the health systems, a problem further exacerbated by poor messaging from the government on the pandemic. As countries exited the pandemic, the damage to public trust in healthcare systems remains; it did indeed prove relatively easy to lose trust in the health system, but recovering trust may take years.”
It noted that to combat these challenges, Vaccine literacy needed to be taken seriously. “Because of the ongoing need for COVID-19 vaccines, and because public health messaging is essential for building the public’s confidence in vaccines, roundtable participants agreed that governments, health workers, and institutions must work together to convey timely and clear messages through trusted channels, advocating the safety and efficacy of currently available COVID-19 vaccines. Since these agents need to be at the forefront of efforts to combat COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, they also need to be constantly educated on the progress of the disease in order to ensure they give a clear message across. Governments need to invest in constant efforts to engage with the public to assess vaccine literacy and ensure that their concerns are addressed.”
Booster shots are critical. “Some patients consider booster shots unnecessary and see more risks than benefits in getting these additional doses. To increase COVID19 vaccination, particularly booster shots, it is important for the public to understand that they are not merely reinforcements of the vaccines that patients have already received, but rather target the latest COVID-19 variants and help maintain strong protection against the virus. Health communication strategies and programs should focus on reducing concerns surrounding COVID-19 booster vaccines, such as safety, efficacy, and side effects. Finally, several participants commented it is important for countries in the region to incorporate the COVID-19 vaccine into routine immunization schedules in order to simplify and standardize the process and ensure increased protection of the population.
Vaccine distribution channels are also critical. “As countries enter a new, post-pandemic state of COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and as the COVID-19 vaccines start being incorporated into routine immunization schedules, countries will need to start thinking about sustainable financing for immunizations within the framework of overall health financing. There is an opportunity to use innovative financing mechanism to fund COVID-19 vaccines, particularly health taxation, vaccine bonds, and advanced market commitments.
“Countries in the region need to rethink financing for health, especially in critical areas of both non-communicable diseases and pandemic preparedness and prevention. Financing structures need to allow for procyclical financing in good times and for countercyclical financing in bad times.”
There needs to be more international collaboration and “Capture learnings,” more quickly so they can be disseminated with the wider international community in rapid fashion as situations are changing.