Laotian Canadian group aims to decrease COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy

Toronto-based organization, LaoCan, is running a grassroots campaign to help reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minorities in Canada, specifically those from Laos or of Lao descent.

Medical experts from the community spoke at a COVID-19 vaccine info session held over Zoom on Saturday.

As a registered midwife, Bounmy Inthavong says she has weekly conversations about vaccinations as getting different vaccines is part of growing up, especially when we’re younger.

“There’s a lack of confidence in the vaccines we’re talking about. Concerns with safety, the effectiveness, distrust in the healthcare system, distrust in the government and pharmaceutical companies,” Inthavong said in the info session.

She says culture is very important, especially when addressing Lao elders, and it can be difficult trying to talk to them about misinformation.

“We really want to build that trust with the person. We want to build confidence. We don’t want to push the individual,” she said.

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Toronto’s Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Vinita Dubey, tells 680 NEWS via email that the city is implementing an initiative to boost vaccine confidence in Toronto, with an understanding of the cultural, religious and historical contexts that may contribute to vaccine hesitancy.

“We provide vaccination information in many languages and work with community organizations across the city to provide vaccination information to residents,” Dubey said.

However, Laotian isn’t one of the languages included in translated materials provided by the province’s online COVID-19 communication resources.

“Remember that language is a barrier and to be patient with it. There’s also a lack of trust within the healthcare system here and that’s because the healthcare system has failed a lot of our community members when trying to address healthcare needs,” Inthavong said.

Part of the info session was translated into Laotian by one of the speakers, which members of LaoCan say wasn’t easy to do since vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine facts are such complex topics to translate.

But Dubey says City-operated clinics have applied a number of strategies to support residents with language barriers.

Toronto Public Health has a call-in translator service that has been used to facilitate communication at clinics, allowing them to access translators anywhere, any time to support clients.

Dubey says residents can also bring one support person when getting vaccinated if they’re worried about translation.

According to data collected by Statistics Canada on COVID-19 vaccine willingness among Canadian population groups, those who identify as visible minorities are at an increased risk of infection and death from the virus.

Inthavong says the Lao Canadian population is often found in lower socio-economic classes and higher risk populations.

“The other thing is time off (work). A lot of our community members don’t have the accessibility to do it,” she said, adding that having to go into work everyday makes it harder to find time to get vaccinated.

“There’s also news from Laos. COVID in Laos is very different than COVID here in terms of the way it’s spreading.”

The National Advisory Committee on Immunizations has placed employees who work in sectors with greater risk of exposure in a higher priority group for receiving the COVID-19 vaccines.

Statistics Canada data shows just over 70 per cent of those who identify as a visible minority reported being very or somewhat willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Compared to non-visible minorities (77.6%), a much lower proportion of the Black population (56.6%) reported being somewhat or very willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

A lower rate of vaccine willingness was also seen among the Latin American population (66.0%).

According to a census from 2016, there’s around 25,000 Lao Canadians in the country.