Trust in COVID-19 vaccine must be developed
Head of the School of Nursing at the UWI’s Five Islands campus, Karen Josiah
Head of the School of Nursing at the UWI’s Five Islands campus, Karen Josiah

– UWI School of Nursing head emphasises, touts open communication

By Vishani Ragobeer

VACCINES for COVID-19 have been developed at a record speed and though that does not mean safety and efficacy have been compromised, public trust in the vaccines must be developed according to Head of the School of Nursing at the UWI’s Five Islands campus, Karen Josiah.

Speaking at a recent vaccination forum organised by the University of the West Indies (UWI), Josiah said that there is a litany of myths and perceptions of the vaccines being developed to protect against the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Though she acknowledged that these may stem from real concerns and fears, she posited that they must be dispelled.

Professor of Molecular Genetics and Virology, Christine Carrington

“Communicating with the stakeholders is essential now to convince people of the safety (of the vaccine),” Josiah said. She emphasised that health officials ought to reveal sound scientific evidence on the efficacy of vaccines and how they work, in addition to communicating possible side effects.

“This will help to build trust and certainly once trust is built, the compliance is easy,” she affirmed. Not only is it important to build trust, she said, but it is also ethical.

She also opined that healthcare workers themselves must become edified on the COVID-19 vaccines and must come on board to help convince citizens of their safety and efficacy.

“We ourselves must feel comfortable as healthcare workers… If we have our own doubt, how do we convince the public (that the vaccines are safe)?” Josiah said.

Common misconceptions, she highlighted, include that vaccines contain some sort of tracking ‘chips’ inside; they can make men sterile, and they cannot be effective because they were created so quickly.

While the first two misconceptions are ludicrous, the speed at which vaccines were created has been a topic of much discussion. The School of Nursing Head, however, stressed that in order for the vaccines to be rolled out, they had to meet certain ethical standards and they would have gone through various trials phases.

Professor of Molecular Genetics and Virology, who is also on the UWI’s COVID-19 Task Force, Christine Carrington, explained at the same forum that vaccines train the body’s immune system to recognise and combat infectious agents (like this coronavirus).

She detailed the numerous rigid steps and phases scientists and researchers go through in order to create a vaccine from the exploratory stages of characterising the disease and the body’s reaction, developing the idea for the vaccine and then several testing stages (known as clinical trials) to test the efficacy of the virus on different individuals.

“Creating a vaccine is, arguably, the easy part,” she said, adding, “The big question is whether a given vaccine is any good.”

Professor Carrington explained that a good vaccine is one that is safe, effective and can be produced and administered efficiently and cost-effectively. And with safety being paramount, she emphasised that an approved vaccine has a low risk of some severe, adverse impact.

Side effects such as pain and swelling at the vaccination site, headaches and joint pains are not necessarily a cause for concern since she explained that these are signs that the immune system is working to fight off the disease. And even after a vaccine is approved, it is continuously monitored for any adverse effects and to allow scientists to improve upon its functioning.

Josiah, too, highlighted, “The safety of the COVID-19 vaccine will continue to be closely monitored by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)… they will be the first to be aware if anything happens.”

So far, Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford Astrazeneca are three widely-known vaccines that have been approved. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are already being distributed across the United States. According to Professor Carrington, the results so far show that the vaccines are effective in preventing COVID-19 and they seem to be safe.

Guyana’s Ministry of Health is expected to announce its COVID-19 vaccination Task Force, which is a team of experts who will be tasked with the effective rollout of the vaccines early next year. The rollout of vaccines for COVID-19 will require careful logistical planning and management, but also specialised resource capacity. It is already known that cold-storage facilities are required.

Beyond physical requirements, human capacity-building is necessary. The Health Ministry has also started to develop a training manual that would be used to train healthcare workers on how to administer a vaccine. Guyana’s first set of COVID-19 vaccines will be secured free of cost, since the country has signed up with the COVAX facility, a global initiative geared at accelerating the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and then providing them in a guaranteed rapid, fair and equitable manner to those countries which need them. COVAX currently has the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines.

This initial set of vaccines that Guyana will be receiving for free is expected to cover 20 percent of the population, and it is likely that healthcare workers and elderly persons with comorbidities (other underlying medical conditions) will receive it first.

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