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May Parsons stresses need to fight misinformation on vaccines

MANILA — Filipina-British nurse May Parsons didn’t expect to find a voice in the most unlikely of times — in the middle of a pandemic. Now she is using that platform to speak for her Filipino colleagues and fight misinformation on vaccines.

Parsons gained recognition for being the first in the world to administer a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials to a 90-year-old British grandmother in December 2020.

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In July this year, she was also chosen to receive, on behalf of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, the prestigious George Cross medal from Queen Elizabeth II. It’s the highest civilian honor in the United Kingdom.

• Queen gives top award to UK’s health service; Pinay nurse a recipient

Both feats previously seemed unimaginable for this alumna of the University of Sto. Tomas College of Nursing.

“Surreal. It was intensely surreal. It was like a dream. It was not something I would be thinking about growing up in Pasay, in Manila, for a small girl traveling across half the world. It was not something that I even thought about. I didn’t think it was possible at all in this lifetime or in a hundred lifetimes,” she told ANC Rundown on Tuesday, towards the tail-end of her ten-day visit to the country.

‘HELPLESS, SCARED’

May Parsons, the Filipina nurse known for administering the 1st COVID-19 vaccine in the world, visits her alma mater UST, for a short meeting with university officials and orgs.

She graduated in 2000, worked for UST Hospital before joining UK’s Natl Health Service. pic.twitter.com/qyBCYWkAFt

— Mike Navallo (@mikenavallo) August 22, 2022

But her success story wasn’t always the case.

Parsons admitted she felt a sense of despair at the start of the pandemic.

“Going to work literally felt like going to war,” she told a gathering of UST officials and nurses’ organizations on Monday.

“But the difference is I couldn’t see my opponent and there was nothing I can do to stop them from ravaging my patients nor myself and consequently, my family. The warfare was palpable in the air. I felt intensely helpless and scared,” she said.

It didn’t help, she said, that there were no vaccines nor treatment yet for COVID-19 at that time.

“As a nurse, we aimed to care, we aimed to heal. And that’s made us realize that there was nothing we can do but hold people’s hands when they were dying. And as a nurse, it was not the best feeling to not be able to help people,” she said, pausing halfway to hold back tears.

But hope came in the form of vaccines.

“Giving the first COVID vaccine has made me feel hope. I was hopeless. We felt all hopeless during the pandemic. And the COVID vaccination heralded the beginning of the end of the pandemic,” she said. “It’s the light at the end of that very, very long tunnel. And it’s a way out for all of us to actually be protected and save endless lives.”

‘FIGHT MISINFORMATION’

Her experience has made her an advocate for vaccination, fighting misinformation online on her own free time.

“I think the issue we have now is for people to actually take on the vaccine which obviously has been proven to be safe and effective against the COVID-19. If I need to go out there in the communities to tell them…” she said.

“It’s vitally important that we get the right messages out there. People are still listening to fake news, misinformation on social media which, sometimes, is the only place they can get their information from, and they're not always reliable to be true and scientifically-based information,” she added.

Of the 42 million in the UK who received their second dose, 33 million came back for their third dose, according to data from the UK government’s coronavirus website.

In the Philippines, 72 million have received 2 doses but only less than 18 million came back for their booster shot or third dose.

Parsons attributed this to a culture of listening to “kapitbahay” and “kumare,” instead of seeking out true information.

“We need to be able to reach those communities that don’t have access to those information. There has to be a movement. There has to be something to reach pockets of communities that don’t have access to the right information,” she said, adding that the Philippine government should do more to tackle misinformation.

“You don’t needlessly have to die. Meron na po tayong proteksyon so please protect yourselves.”

‘TREAT NURSES FAIRLY’

Beyond encouraging vaccination, Parsons also urged the Philippine government and the Filipino public to treat nurses fairly.

Parsons, who left the country in pursuit of better opportunities, said she felt sorry to learn that some nurses in the Philippines are still paid P5,000 a month.

“I’ve heard a lot of horrific instances where nurses are not being paid enough to actually survive…A nursing curriculum is not that cheap. And for the intensity of our training, the intensity of our work and the work we do, I think we deserve more. They deserve more,” she said.

Parsons said nurses are not seeking special treatment but just enough compensation to provide for their own families as they deal with their own problems.

Aside from low salaries, nurses and other health care workers had to contend with delayed or unreleased hazard pay, among other benefits the Philippine Bayanihan laws supposedly allotted to medical frontliners.

At some point, the Philippine government imposed a deployment ban, later a deployment cap, on nurses to keep them from leaving the country and instead fill the gaps in hospital personnel.

But burned-out nurses resigned and chose to work in other industries.

For Parsons, the government should not prevent nurses from leaving.

“Kung di niyo po sila pahahalagahan, by giving them the right salary, by protecting them, by making them feel valued, kung hindi nyo po sila pahahalagahan at aalagaan, hindi po sila mag-i-stay,” she said.

“So my request is, kung gusto nyo po silang mag-stay dito, be fair. Hindi naman po kami naghahanap ng pa-espesyal na trato. Ang kailangan lang po namin is fairness and equity,” she added.

After two decades of quietly working as a nurse in the UK, working her way up to becoming modern matron or division manager in the NHS, Parsons found herself in a position of influence. And she hopes whatever voice she has, can help amplify the concerns of her colleagues.

“Nurses are integral to the success of our communities…They are the ones at the bedside, they are the ones who’s gonna be holding your relatives' or your hands in times of need. These are the people who are going to look after you 24 hours a day. There is no other profession that will be doing the same thing that nurses do,” she said.

“They deserve better. They deserve more.”