Anti-vax villagers attack Guatemalan nurses

Authorities say online disinformation is feeding resistance to coronavirus vaccines. GUATEMALA HEALTH MINISTRY PHOTO
Authorities say online disinformation is feeding resistance to coronavirus vaccines. GUATEMALA HEALTH MINISTRY PHOTO

GUATEMALA City – Anti-vaccine residents in a village in rural Guatemala have attacked nurses who were trying to administer coronavirus jabs, holding them for seven hours, officials say.

About 500 people blocked a road and vandalized the team’s cars in Maguilá, in the northern Alta Verapaz province.

The 11 workers were released after police negotiated with the villagers, who destroyed about 50 vaccine doses.

Authorities say online disinformation is feeding resistance to the vaccines.

The nurses were “verbally and physically attacked” by the residents, who let the air out of the workers’ tires and destroyed the cool boxes storing the doses, the health ministry said.

“We were very scared because we had never been through something like this. We were just doing our duty,” a nurse was quoted by the statement as saying. “We tried to explain a number of times that vaccination is voluntary and that we did not want to force anyone, yet they didn’t let us [work].

Local media report that residents rejected the vaccine because a villager who received a dose had developed side effects, which were interpreted as being health problems linked to the jab. (BBC)

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