Nurses in Guatemala brutally attacked by anti-vaccine groups

Anti-vaccine residents in a rural Guatemala village attacked nurses who tried to administer the Covid-19 jabs. The villagers held the medical staff for over seven hours.

The nurses were "verbally and physically attacked" by residents, who let the air out of the workers' tires and destroyed the cool boxes that store the cans, the health ministry declared. As per reports, the cars of medical teams were vandalized, and more than 500 people blocked roads in the northern Alta Verapaz province.

The 11, including nurses and other medical staff members, were rescued after police settled with the villagers, who destroyed around 50 vaccine cans.

Authorities stated online disinformation is fueling resistance in people regarding coronavirus vaccines.

"We were very scared because we had never experienced anything like this ever. We were just doing our job," a nurse was quoted as saying. "We tried several times to explain that the vaccination was voluntary and that we did not want to force anyone, but they did not listen."

Local media reported that residents refused the vaccine because a villager who received a dose developed side effects that were interpreted as health problems associated with the jab.

Specialists answer the most common side effects of the doses are pain or stiffness at the injection site. Some people have broader effects such as fever, headache, nausea and drowsiness, but they are mostly mild and temporary.

Gabriel Sandoval, the director of the provincial health department, told media that officials had previously met with communities that refused vaccination teams but that it was the first time they had faced such physical resistance.

"This is going to happen," he said, citing false information about the vaccines being shared on social media. "Many people do not believe in disease ... There is a collision of cultures".

President Alejandro Giammattei called on people to "support and respect health officials who carry out the vaccination campaign, who have been" threatened, attacked and even abducted ".

So far, only 25% of the eligible people have been vaccinated in Guatemala, making the rates one of the lowest in the region