DISTRUST in modern medicine and outsiders are just two of the hurdles Sarawak’s health authorities face in persuading the indigenous Penan community into getting vaccinated against Covid-19.

The reasons for the refusal are actually myriad, one of the Penan’s elected representatives, Batu Danau assemblyman Paulus Palu Gumbang and state health director, Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed, told The Malaysian Insight.

They said “incorrect information from the public” was the reason why the Penans are refusing to be vaccinated.

Gumbang said the Penans were even told that the vaccination would be in violation of their religious beliefs.

Other reasons include the perception that China’s single-dose CanSino vaccine, which the state had planned for the rural communities, is a poor quality vaccine.

“Why are those in rural areas to be injected with the CanSino vaccine when those in the urban areas are injected with the two-dose Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines?” Gumbang asked.

Despite the hard push by the state for the CanSino vaccine, no delivery has been made to date.

Gumbang said due to logistical and communication difficulties in the rural areas, there is a low awareness on the importance of group immunisation and the need for herd immunity.

He also said the rejection was further fuelled by the mistaken belief by the Penans that the Covid-19 only occurs in the city and not in rural areas.

Sapian, meanwhile, told The Malaysian Insight even though health offices where the Penans are concentrated had started to promote the immunisation programme since March, there is little to show for the effort.

“In general, they still refused to be vaccinated. Some are coming but (many) are still refusing,” he said.

It is estimated there are about 10,000 Penans in Sarawak. They are mostly concentrated in the northern parts of the state, in the deep interior of the Baram river basin in Miri, Limbang and Lawas.

The group’s refusal to get the jabs came to light when the Resident of Limbang division, Ahmad Denney Ahmad Fauzi, recently said that not one of the Penans in the district have been vaccinated despite the many attempts to get them to do so.

Ahmad even claimed in one incident, the Penans at the settlement of Long Napir fled into the forest to hide from a mobile vaccination team that was sent to their settlement.

Gumbang also said the response to register, even manually, for the vaccination “is not encouraging”.

In one Penan settlement in his constituency, Kg Bahagia at Long Rayeh, only 19 have so far registered where there are more than 400 adults there.

The settlement is some three to four hours drive via abandoned logging roads from Limbang.

In the adjacent constituency of Telang Usan in Baram, its elected representative Dennis Nagu lamented that only one Penan from the settlement of Long Leng had been vaccinated. And he is the headman of the settlement.

Using local influencers

Sapian said it was true the Penans in Baram are refusing to be vaccinated.

“Various approaches have been used to promote the vaccination programme to this ethnic group,” he said, and one of them is to get the health clinics in the Penan areas to speak with the community.

He said similar engagements were also being done by the district offices via the community leaders.

Sapian said promotional materials using the different Penan dialects to promote vaccination have also been distributed.

The state has also used influential Penans to speak to the community, hoping this will make them more trusting towards the health authorities.

The “local influencers” the Penans have most trust in are their church pastors and it is for this reason church officials from Sidang Injil Borneo, have been engaged to allay their distrust of modern medicine.

Sapian said earlier this month, the Limbang division health office used a well-known pastor to prepare the community for vaccination, but there were very few who attended the talk by the pastor.

Despite all the engagements and promotional activities, he said authorities still have no clue if their efforts are chipping away the deep-rooted mindset of the Penans on the vaccination exercise.

“We have not been able to confirm yet whether they will continue with their stand or (make the) change.”

No statistics is available on the number of Penans being vaccinated but the latest figures made available by the health department showed that 70% of the total eligible population in Limbang has been at least vaccinated with the first dose, while 49% have completed both doses. – July 25, 2021.