The Effectiveness of the COVID-19 Vaccine
Today, the Ministry of Health and Wellness held a media sensitization session at the Radisson on COVID-19 vaccines. Among the issues discussed were the effectiveness of vaccines in a pandemic and resistance by healthcare workers to getting vaccinated. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
As Belize anticipates the arrival of its first full scale allocation of approximately one hundred thousand doses of vaccines through the COVAX Facility, anxiety continues to build about the effectiveness of the vaccine. Several questions come to mind, the most important: can I contract COVID-19 after I take the vaccine? The simple answer is yes, but if you do, the symptoms will be less severe.
Natalia Largaespada Beer
Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer, Maternal & Child Health Technical Advisor, M.O.H.W.
“For persons that are vaccinated and they come in contact with someone with measles and by any chance their immune response was not the best, they might get the measles, but very mild. They wouldn’t even know they have the measles. And the same thing can happen with COVID-19. We know that it reduces the transmissibility, but there is transmission that can occur. But what they are certain of with all the COVID-19 vaccines is that it reduces the severe illness, hospitalisation and deaths. So COVID-19 vaccine save lives.”
Worldwide, many governments have decided that the best way to fight the pandemic is through herd immunity through vaccination of seventy percent of the population; in Belize, that’s around two hundred and forty-two thousand persons. The grouping for which the Astra Zeneca vaccine can be administered is ages eighteen years and older and they make up fifty-eight percent of Belize’s population.
Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer
“This is just one more vaccine that will protect us against COVID-19 and it’s what the world is saying is we can only be safe if all of us are safe. That means beside wearing the masks, beside physical distancing, washing the hands, cleaning down surfaces, stay at home, vaccine will play a big role in reducing the number of COVID-19, especially severe illness and deaths.”
And even before the vaccine rollout takes place, there is already resistance from some members of the public. A poll has determined that only fifty-three percent of healthcare workers have agree to be vaccinated whenever the vaccines are made available.
Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer
“We don’t have any polling so far for the general population, but we already started the conversation at district level. The district teams are meeting with their stakeholders and getting the information out on the importance of the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. The healthcare workers right now we are collecting information on their acceptance of the COVID-19 which we expect will be high because they are the ones that are in contact with these patients with COVID-19 and they are the ones that are working the extra hours and going the extra mile to provide the regular services, plus the services from the COVID-19 units. The report that I saw earlier with just a subsample of that show that at least fifty-three percent of the healthcare workers are willing to accept the vaccine now, thirty-five percent still need a little more information and twelve percent were saying no.”
The Ministry of Health and Wellness has embarked on an information campaign on vaccines. Duane Moody for News Five.
