Region urged to address ‘myths’ about COVID-19 vaccines

Local and regional experts are warning Caribbean leaders that they will have a major task on their hands to encourage their population to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available here.

The issue of COVID-19 vaccination came up for discussion during the University of the West Indies (UWI) Vice-Chancellor’s Forum on Friday.

While agreeing that concerns about the vaccine were genuine, the health officials stressed that a lot of the information now circulating on social media was nothing but myths that should be dispelled.

Karen Josiah, Head of the School of Nursing at the UWI 5-Island Campuses, said she believed public health officials will have a hard time convincing residents to take the vaccine because of the myths and beliefs.

So far, there have been several theories about why vaccines have been developed so rapidly for the COVID-19 pandemic but not for other viral illnesses. There have also been beliefs about the likely impact the vaccines could have on humans and especially some races and whether it would be used as a tracking device.

Stating that the “fears, mistrust and concerns” are genuine, Josiah said it was now up to leaders, health officials, the media and other stakeholders to share the correct information about the vaccines.

“Health educators and health officials have an extremely difficult job now to convince our population of the safety of vaccine,” said Josiah, who was making a presentation on Dispelling Common Myths and Perceptions of Vaccinations.

She said health officials must reveal sound, scientific evidence and not hide anything whether the side effects are good or bad.

“They have to be very convincing and truthful in letting the public know exactly what is happening because the moment the public senses there is financial gains or any other benefits other than the health and safety of people that becomes a problem. Giving ethically and truthful information is very essential. This will help to build trust and then the compliance of these vaccines becomes easy,” said Josiah.

Meanwhile, Professor Clive Landis, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Undergraduate Studies and Chair of the UWI COVID-19 Task Force, said when it came to vaccination it was always a matter of “benefit versus risk”, and it would be up to officials to persuade people to take the vaccine.

Recalling the effectiveness of vaccines in eliminating diseases or reducing the likelihood of infection over the years, Landis said the expectation is that the COVID-19 vaccine would eradicate the COVID-19 virus.

“So when we look at vaccines it has always been this balance between benefit versus risk,” he said.

“What is absolutely critical of course is to have a very robust safety and efficacy procedure,” said Landis.

Pointing out that fears among the population were valid, Landis recalled the Cutter incident with polio vaccines in the US in the 1950s, the unethical Tuskegee, Alabama syphilis study between the 1930’s and 1970s, and the Guatemala sexual transmitted disease study in the 1940s.

Pointing to the improvement in life expectancy rates due to vaccination programmes, Landis said “We must never forget what vaccines have achieved for all of us in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Landis, an immunologist explained how cells react to pathogens and vaccines and said anyone wondering why a vaccine was not already developed for HIV should note that this was because HIV infects the Cd4 T-Cell, the helper cell that is right at the heart of the immune response which is needed to create a vaccine response against the disease.

“Luckily, the coronavirus is not like that. We have developed very good B-cell responses and very good T-cell responses to them, and most immunologists are quite confident that the vaccines will be effective,” said Landis, who was presenting on the topic Vaccines and Immunity.

Several vaccines have been developed for the COVID-19 virus, but the three main ones which have captured the world’s attention are those developed by Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

“When people say these vaccines have been created very quickly, this is what these modern recombinant DNA and vaccines are able to do. They can move more quickly because Oxford has already made an adenoviral vaccine against SARS in 2003 and it made another vaccine against coronavirus called MERS in 2012.

“So it was a very simple step when the sequence of new coronavirus, COVID-19, was published on January 9. It was just to take that sequence for the glycoprotein and slot it in, that is how they made this new vaccine so quickly,” explained Landis, who noted that there was an even quicker way of making vaccines for some viruses using what is called messenger RNA.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb