–Health Minister advises

MINISTER of Health Dr Frank Anthony is advising the public that the protective effects of the COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any potential side-effects.
He made this statement on Monday during the daily COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Guyana began its COVID-19 vaccination rollout in February following the Government of Barbados’ donation of 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The country also received 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China and 80,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from India.

Minister Anthony stated that the COVID-19 vaccine may come with the normal side-effects like any other vaccine. These include a bit of pain in the arm or a little bit of fever, both of which he advised would last only for a few hours.

“The protective effects of this vaccine outweigh whatever little side-effects that you might get when the vaccines are administered, and those side-effects are usually a little bit of pain in the arm or a little bit of fever; but after a couple of hours that is gone and your immune system would start developing antibodies that would protect you from COVID and I think that is what is important,” said Minister Anthony.

Further, he reminded the public that vaccines have been around for a long time and are pivotal in mass health-and-safety exercises.
Minister Anthony also reminded citizens that the effects of vaccines have been analysed and understood as the protection of people.

“We have seen vaccines and how they work with children. We are immunising children, every year we immunise our children; we have been giving out now 18 different types of vaccines to protect children from 18 types of diseases and it[sic] has [sic] been working because we don’t see those diseases in Guyana. And it’s the same with COVID, once you take your vaccine you will be protected,” Minister Anthony explained.

He cautioned that there are persons who may be willingly or even unknowingly spreading false information about the COVID-19 vaccine to the public. He advised members of the public to ensure that information is taken from competent sources, such as the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and even John Hopkins University, which all have extensive information about the vaccines.