Study finds no major side effects from COVID-19 vaccine in Barbados

No significant side effects have been found in an analysis of adverse events reported by persons who have taken the COVID-19 vaccines in Barbados.

And independent researcher Chatoyer Bobb suggests that is an indication the vaccines are relatively safe.

The findings of the study conducted between February and September 28 this year, were revealed on Thursday night at a virtual forum entitled Pharmacovigilance – Monitoring the Safety of the COVID-19 vaccines in Barbados, sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Bobb disclosed that in the examination of the 245,808 doses of AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Pfizer vaccines administered here, there were 495 reported adverse effects. Those included relatively mild reactions such as fever, chills, and pain at the site of the injection.

The data show that for the AstraZeneca vaccine, of the 203,659 doses administered there were 487 adverse effects reported. Of the 32,946 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, there were six adverse events; and in the case of the 9,203 Sinopharm vaccines given, only two adverse events were reported.

Bobb said: “So, overall, again in terms of the total adverse events reported and the vaccines that we have, less than one per cent of persons vaccinated are indicating that they experienced adverse events.”

Continuous monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines is done by the Adverse Events Surveillance Committee which meets weekly/bi-weekly to discuss the reports received through various channels, namely the Barbados Drug Service reporting mechanism and public and private health care providers.

On the Drug Service’s website, the public can click on the ‘Reporting Form for Suspected COVID-19 AEFI’ link. Reports can be made by doctors and patients.

In the study, a breakdown of the persons who reported adverse events shows there were 78 per cent females and 22 per cent males.

“As of September 28, you had some 61,451 females vaccinated and of that… the percentage of women reporting events is 0.63 per cent which, again, is less than one per cent. In terms of males, the 48,283 vaccinated, again less than one per cent,” Bobb said.

“The process of monitoring suggests that the vaccines that are used in Barbados – the data is indicating – are relatively safe….”

The surveillance also captured persons with co-morbidities. Of the persons who self-reported, there were 103 persons (49 per cent) indicating that they had hypertension, 30 persons had asthma (14 per cent ) and 77 persons (37 per cent) indicated they had diabetes.

Bobb said the analysis is useful because it gives insight into the experiences of the Barbadian population as it relates to adverse reactions.

“So we can make decisions about what vaccines are safe…. It is timely and it allows for investigation of these adverse events.

“And the adverse events that are classified as serious or medically important, when received, are investigated, assessed and documented by the pharmacovigilance committee. So those I think are the key strengths,” Bobb said.

He, however, noted that the study was limited in terms of being able to conduct a comparative analysis by vaccine type. He explained that there is a possibility of a selection bias towards AstraZeneca, which was the first vaccine available, compared to the fewer reports for the Pfizer and Sinopharm vaccine.

Bobb stressed the need for local research, pointing out that local safety data allows authorities to capture the information that can be fed to the World Health Organisation and the CDC to help inform global safety data.

“The second thing is that if you follow social media, there is a lot of anecdotal things – this person’s cousin or friend had these adverse reactions. If we don’t have data or we don’t capture local data then we can’t respond to that. Having the local safety data allows us to respond to those concerns within the local population about vaccine safety and adverse events,” Bobb said.

sandydeane@barbadostoday.bb