Health Minister dismisses vaccine myths

HEALTH MINISTER Dr. FRANK ANTHONY THIS WEEK PUSHED BACK AGAINST
MYTHS linked to taking COVID-19 vaccines in Guyana, pleading with the nation to take the
jab as a precaution against contracting the deadly virus.
“Vaccines are used to prevent the disease. If you take the vaccines, you will not get the disease
as it is designed to stimulate your immune system…to fight off the disease, just in case you are
exposed to the virus. So, it is myth that COVID 19 vaccine will kill you. It will not kill…it does
the opposite,” Dr Anthony explained during a radio broadcast from the bauxite-mining town of
Linden, Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten).
Anthony also quelled fears of any shortage of COVID vaccine in Guyana.
“We have reached out to countries such as India and China and they made donations of vaccines
to us so we have 80,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from India and…it means that we can
vaccinate 40,000 persons. we also received 20,000 doses from the Chinese so we were able to
immunize 10,000 persons,” the Health Minister said.
As part of the global community and the international mechanism called COVAX, the country
was also the recipient of 24,000 doses to immunise 12,000 persons.
“We then went on to buy Sputnik V, a vaccine that is made in Russia that is 91.2 percent
effective and we have been using that to give to persons around the country. So, when you think
about it, we have been able to procure a lot of vaccines,” Dr. Anthony told his listeners.
Dr Anthony disclosed that there were two vaccines that the government initially tried acquiring
but the manufacturer advised that, because of a shortage, Guyana will probably have to wait until
next year.

There are also widespread fears about the speed with which the vaccines have been made
publicly available. He argued that in the past there was rapid development to help fight
pandemics.
“We must understand that while they were doing this quickly, they did not compromise the
safety standards. To have a vaccine that (is suitable) for the use by human beings it has to go
through clinical trials,” Anthony explained.
There are three clinical trials – phases 1, 2 and 3 – “and each one of these will tests different
things advocacy, dosage and to (verify) if these vaccines produce side effects, and if they do,
whether they should continue or (dis)continue its use,” the Minister explained.
Effectiveness of vaccines publicly available to fight the COVID-19 pandemic vary in the range of
70 percent to 95 percent, well above flu vaccines.
Pfizer is 95 percent effective; Moderna, 74 percent and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen),
recently authorised for use in the US, reportedly has an overall 66 percent effectiveness, (72
percent in the US) the CNN online report said.