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Image source, Guatemala Ministry of Health
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Residents held the vaccination squads for almost seven hours.
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An unusual “kidnapping” took place in Guatemala on Monday.
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Two mobile vaccination brigades were held for more than seven hours in a village in the north of the country, after a large group of residents attacked them and even tried to lynch them, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
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Some 500 people blocked a road and destroyed the cars in which the team was traveling to the community of Maguilá, in the province of Alta Verapaz.
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The more than a dozen health workers were released after police negotiated with villagers, who destroyed about 50 doses of vaccines, according to the official report.
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“A group of residents attacked our staff, who had to be rescued by the Government and now they are safe,” said Eliú Mazariegos, director of Services at the Ministry of Public Health.
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The authorities believe that misinformation on social media about vaccination was behind the incident.
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Local media reported that residents rejected the vaccine because a villager who received a dose had developed side effects.
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The most common side effects of vaccines are pain or tenderness at the injection site.
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Some people have broader effects such as fever, headache, nausea, and fatigue, but these are generally mild and short-lived.
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What happened
According to Mazariegos, the vaccination personnel were “verbally and physically attacked” by the residents, who punctured the tires of the cars and destroyed the portable refrigerators in which the doses were stored.
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“We were very scared because we had never been through something like this. We were just doing our duty,” a nurse said in a statement.
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“We tried to explain several times that vaccination is voluntary and that we didn’t want to force anyone, but they wouldn’t let us [trabajar]”he added.
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Gabriel Sandoval, director of the provincial health department, told the Associated Press that officials had previously encountered communities that rejected vaccination kits, but that it was the first time they faced such physical resistance.
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“This was destined to happen,” he said, citing that a lot of false information about vaccines abounds.
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“Many people do not believe in the disease … There is a clash of cultures,” he added.
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In a televised speech on Saturday, President Alejandro Giammattei urged people to “support and respect” the health officials carrying out the vaccination campaign who were being “threatened, attacked and even kidnapped.”
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Approximately 2.5 million people, or 25% of the eligible population, have been fully vaccinated in Guatemala, one of the lowest rates in Latin America.
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To date, the country has confirmed more than 566,000 cases and 13,750 deaths linked to covid-19.
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