Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday stated that the protection offered by a COVID-19 vaccine outweighs the minor side effects that some persons may experience.
Anthony was at the time responding to concerns about adverse reactions and reports of what those effects could possibly be during his daily COVID-19 update.
In response to the concerns raised about a report of someone experiencing paralysis after receiving one of the vaccines in another country, Anthony noted that during the company’s clinical trial stage it was stopped for an assessment to be conducted.
“In the clinical trials there was one case where someone developed paralysis. They had actually stopped the clinical trial, did a complete assessment of what is going on and they found that there wasn’t any connection between the vaccine and this person who developed these signs and symptoms,” he said.
Late last year, during the trial stages for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, the trials were paused for an independent review to be done after one participant received one dose of the vaccine prior to developing inflammation of the spinal cord, known as transverse myelitis. It was later reported that that case was not directly linked to the patient receiving the vaccine.
Anthony stated that there’s no need to worry as there were no other incidents of that magnitude reported. “Of course with any medication, any vaccine, we have to constantly monitor to see if there’s any complication that has been developed and the AstraZeneca vaccine has been rolled out to millions of people around the world [and] nothing like this has been reported,” he said.
The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is currently being used here to immunise persons age 60 and over.
In relation to the Sinopharm vaccine, which Guyana received as part of a donation from the Government of China, he said that that vaccine has been administered to millions of people in the Middle East, China and parts of South America and no adverse effects were reported.
“So I just want people to understand, the protective effects of these vaccines, outweigh whatever little side effects that you might get when the vaccines are being administered,” Anthony assured.
He went on to add that after a few hours those side effects, which include fever and pain at the injection site, would subside and the immune system will begin to develop antibodies to protect from COVID-19.
Dr. Anthony then urged persons who are eligible to receive the vaccine to ensure that they have it. “So again, I’ll urge people if you have the opportunity to get the vaccine, please go out and get the vaccine,” he added.
