Dear Editor,
Covid-19 and its devastating ability to mutate and create more deadly variants, has resulted in us adopting whatever precautionary methods are available. We rely heavily on our health care professionals to safeguard us through this perilous time. Those bodies and individuals are comprised of and within the World Health Organization, the Centre of Disease Control (U.S.A), the Food and Drug Administration (U.S.A) and governmental and private health institutions worldwide. However, it is necessary for us to add to their industry and concern by exercising our own vigilance.
Those persons putting the vaccines into other people’s arms, need to display due care similar to the attention we should exert during the procedure. They need to be welcoming, reassuring and competent, which I have found them to be. The name of the vaccine, on the bottle, should be shown to the recipient along with the syringe and needle, which must be taken from an unopened package. The area to be injected (upper arm), must be wiped with sterilized cotton wool and the needle inserted thereafter. The plunger of the syringe must be depressed after the needle is inserted so as to release the vaccine into the recipient’s arm. This final step is important to observe because the needle could be inserted without the vaccine being sent into the arm. Hence, the recipient should be shown the syringe after the injection is conducted to confirm that it is empty. On the three occasions that I went for my vaccines, it is commendable that I was shown the name of the vaccine on the bottle from which the vaccine was released.
After making these suggestions to a member of staff in the Minister’s Secretariat at the Ministry of Health in Brickdam, he rejected them with a supercilious tone, by saying that after the vaccination the needle is quickly disposed of, to avoid someone being stuck with it. In my opinion, after showing the syringe attached to the needle, to the recipient, it could then be quickly and safely discarded. The member of staff also stated that most people look away from the arm being injected. I witnessed that truth on all the occasions I went for my vaccinations. However, I was given no assurance that my suggestions would be considered.
We place a lot of trust and our lives in the hands of our healthcare providers and this should be fully appreciated by them and establish a bond of mutual respect. It is unlikely that these professionals doing a special job of healing and saving lives, would intentionally cause harm but negligence can occur in an unguarded moment and cause irreparable damage. As the Guyanese proverb states: “It takes two hands to clap” so we should assist our healthcare providers in any small way we can in any moment of weakness which is integral in human nature.
Sincerely,
Conrad Barrow
