SHARON AUSTINGILL-MOORE —— BGIS

As Barbados prepares to roll out its vaccination programme, citizens are again being encouraged to take the vaccine.

This time the encouragement is coming from Chief Mission Officer at Holy Cross Health, Washington, DC, Rev. Dr. Kirtley Yearwood, who has already taken the vaccine.

The Barbadian-born medical doctor, pathologist, and hospital administrator, emphasised the importance of taking the vaccine this evening while participating in the COVID-19 press conference which discussed: The Roll Out of the COVID-19 Vaccination in Barbados.

Rev. Yearwood received his first jab on December 23 and the second on January 11, and said he had “absolutely no side effects”.

“After my first dosage, my left arm was a little bit heavy for about a half hour or so, and that’s it; no fever or anything else like that. So, I can testify to the importance of receiving a vaccine,” he stated.

Holy Cross Health is a not-for-profit Catholic health system which serves more than 240,000 patients yearly from Maryland’s two largest counties.  

Rev. Yearwood has, in recent times, been greatly involved in the coordination of the vaccinations. Holy Cross Health started vaccinating on December 18, and as of last Friday,11,300 vaccinations were administered.

“We have had no one die from receiving a vaccination…. Some individuals complain of a little mild fever or a few body aches, especially after the second dose, which you would expect as the immune system is revved up, but no one has died,” he stressed.

He noted that the institution had treated almost 6,000 patients with COVID-19 and there were some deaths.

He pointed out that as of today, there were 87 patients in that hospital with the viral illness, and there was one death over the weekend.  

“So, the number of deaths has started to come down as we have ramped up the vaccinations across our state and across the region.  So, the vaccine is already beginning to have an impact…,” he opined.

Rev. Yearwood said he was “very impressed” with the measures taken by Government and those in the health sector to curtail the spread of the disease and surmised that it waseasier for a smaller nation to go into lockdown.

“We have to say, however, that we are human beings; staying in lockdown and lack of socialisation is hard on people.  It’s natural to want to get out and mix and mingle with your friends and family; so it’s challenging. But it is so very important for people to maintain those measures as a way to curtail the spread.

“If we relax ourselves and start hanging out and partying and going to the various rum shops, etcetera, …we have the tendency, therefore, to spread this disease even more. You cannot see the enemy, that’s why it’s so hard,” he stated.

Rev. Yearwood gave the reminder that even when persons received the vaccination, they should maintain physical distance; wear the mask and practise regular hand sanitising.

SHARON AUSTINGILL-MOORE —— BGIS

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Doctor: Vaccines Are Safe & Save Lives

As Government prepares to roll out a massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19, Barbadians are being assured that vaccines are safe.

Acting Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Omar Edwards, stated: “Next to clean water and sanitation, vaccines are among one of the foremost public health measures that saves lives.”

He added that this was the intention behind the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in Barbados.

Speaking during a COVID-19 update and press conference this evening, Dr. Edwards said there were four vaccines available on the market – Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, Sputnik V, and Oxford-AstraZeneca.

He added that while they were all “relatively safe” there was little incidence of reported severe allergic reactions with the Oxford-AstraZeneca, which Barbados is receiving.

“The effectiveness or the efficacy of these vaccines will vary, but all of these vaccines produce an efficacy above 60 per cent. So, what that translates to is, persons receiving the complete course of vaccination will be offered a measure of protection against severe disease should they contract COVID, and the subsequent complications of that.

“That also translates into the medical sense, in the form of reduced hospitalisations. So, this is what you want, an effective vaccine. You have decreased symptoms; you have decreased severe medical course, and the patient is more likely to survive. So, this is what we want at the end of the day, for the vaccine to save lives,” the Medical Officer of Health stressed.

He added that if “herd immunity” was achieved, it could result in a reduction of in-country transmission of COVID-19 overtime.

In responding to queries from some religious groups, he also explained that the vaccine did not contain any blood products, but looked at genetic materials which formed the basis of the immune response.

He explained that most vaccines created an antibody response to a particular pathogen.  “What is new is how the process begins. For COVID-19 vaccines, the process begins with the delivery of genetic material.  For the Oxford-AstraZeneca, we are looking at DNA….

“Once that is introduced into the cell it is incorporated into the protein making machinery, and will eventually lead to a complete immune response,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Edwards noted that training for medical and nursing practitioners and other members of the teams involved in the vaccination campaign had already started across the public and private sectors and volunteer groups.

He explained that the training would provide those involved with background on COVID-19, the particular variants of concern, and on the types of vaccines that were available, particularly the Oxford-AstraZeneca.

The training will also cover the adverse effects of the vaccine, the observational period after it is received, the public health situation on the island, and logistics. “We are being cautious, and the training will also include the medical management of the entire process,” he said.

JULIA RAWLINS-BENTHAM — BGIS