The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked the level of anxiety\nand stress among the general population all over the world to the highest. This\nis indicated by the increasing number of related mental and emotional breakdowns\nthat have been reported in the media. The spike of online consultations as well\nas clinic and hospital visits related to Covid-19 cases have also been recorded\nthroughout the pandemic situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incidences such as relation and communication\nbreakdowns in the family during the movement control order (MCO), the rising of\nreported cases like post trauma and stress, and increasing number of relapse\ncases such as anxiety and depression during the pandemic situation, all contribute\nto the worsening level of mental health issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MCO itself has increased the risk of developing the\nfeeling of social isolation that normally increase the risk of loneliness and\nemptiness. Research has also confirmed that these feelings are likely to put a\nperson into a higher risk of getting depression and other types of emotional\nbreakdowns. Undoubtedly, there are people in the society who also has to cope\nwith losing their loved ones due to the Covid-19 fatal infection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, the start of the pandemic has increased the\nrisk of developing other types of anxiety related syndromes among the people.\nFor example, someone may be mentally preoccupied with the fear of being infected\nwith the Covid-19 virus. Subsequently, they start to believe that they are sick\nand the same catastrophic belief consequently leads to the increased level of\nfear and anxiety to such an uncontrollable situation that they may lastly\nstricken by severe form of panic and anxiety attacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Due to this situation, some of them may unconsciously develop\ncoronaphobia and nosophobia, or even agoraphobia. These are the specific terms\nthat have been used to describe irrational fear of getting infected by the\nvirus, or apprehensive belief that they are sick as a result of the infection.\nSooner or later, they start to avoid public and crowded places for being afraid\nof getting the infection from the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news to combat all this is the emergence of Covid-19\nvaccine, which is supposed to make people happy and highly motivated to\ncontinue life. With the vaccine, the infection rate or the level of illness\nseverity can be controlled. Even this cannot stop some group of people from\nthwarting off their nervous and anxiety about the infection. They are still\nlocked up and trapped in their world of catastrophic style of thinking that\neventually slows down the speedy progress of combatting war with the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current situation reveals that there are more than seven\nmillion registrants willing to receive Covid-19 vaccine so far, at the time\nthis article was written. It is expected to be equivalent to 30 percent of the\ntargeted number of the population to be registered in the National Covid-19\nImmunisation Program or PICK with the hope that at least 80 percent of the\npopulation would register and successfully vaccinated for the country and\ncommunity to reach the level of herd immunity. Meaning that we have to wait for\nanother 50 percent of the population to willingly get registered by the specified\ntime so that the targeted vaccination progress would be achieved as early as\npossible. However, this objective is somewhat doubtful considering the current\nregistration trend and responses, when the underlying issue of vaccine\nhesitancy and resistance becomes a national concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is actually an emerging issue faced by other\nnations all over the world. Many things need to be done in order to get\nsolutions to vaccine anxiety and hesitancy in the population. Of course this\ndemands some deep research in order to get to the root causes from the\nMalaysian context and perspective. Just to share some information that along\nthe way, some related research have been done in other countries, especially in\nthe US, as investigated by Pew Research Centre and Kaiser Family Foundation, in\nrelation to the pandemic Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In summary, the research concludes that catastrophic\nthinking actually underlies the vaccination program hesitancy and this needs to\nbe fixed first if the objective of the programme is to be successful. Secondly,\nmisinformation and negative understanding that lingers around the vaccine side\neffects and safety must itself be dealt with clearly and objectively so that\nevidences and facts would help in providing some relief. Among the myths\nsurrounding the vaccine are that it will alter their DNA and genetic makeup\npermanently, will cause some genetic defects, or may lead to the development of\nother fatal illnesses. Others believe that taking the vaccine will make them\nmore easily prone to get the infection and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the domestic experience, an observation has at\nleast come to the solution when Muzakarah Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan on December\n3, 2020 ruled that the vaccine is not prohibited in Islam. This has settled\nsome issues related to misunderstanding about the status of Covid-19 vaccine. On\ntop of this, Islam has also guided Muslims to practice the skill of providing\nfacts and verification when it comes to spreading news, especially related to\nthe pandemic. In Surah al Hujurat (6), Allah says, means: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cO you who have believed, if there comes to you a\ndisobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of\nignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked the level of anxiety and stress among the general population all over the world to the highest. This is indicated by the increasing number of related mental and emotional breakdowns that have been reported in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}