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AstraZeneca vaccine right for Barbados- officials

by Emmanuel Joseph
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Two senior public health care officials on Monday sought to assure Barbadians that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is perfect for Barbados.

Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Omar Edwards and Senior Health Sister Juleyette Serrano gave their stamp of approval during a COVID-19 update and press conference while explaining why the Government chose to distribute that vaccine over the others on the market.

While she could not speak from a Government policy perspective, Serrano, the chairperson of the local Immunization Committee and a member of the COVID-19 Vaccine Planners Committee said that one reason was the adaptability of the AstraZeneca to the local climate.

Barbados is due to receive a batch of 100,000 doses of the vaccine later this week.

The Senior Health Sister at the Branford Taitt Polyclinic said this vaccine fits into the temperature storage requirement currently used in Barbados.

She told journalists: “Currently our capacity here in dealing with the vaccines…we can safely deal with the vaccines within the temperature range that we are currently dealing with. Right now we deal with vaccines up minus 30 degrees. The other vaccine, the Pfizer, that is sub-zero temperature. So, therefore, we would have to put a lot of infrastructure in place to deal with that vaccine.”

She said that ideally in a tropical climate such as Barbados the Pfizer-BioNTech jab might not be the better choice.

“Also, the AstraZeneca vaccine, that has passed, like the others, all three clinical trials and they are being used extensively within the UK, within the USA and other countries as well,” the senior health care provider explained.

Serrano, who also specializes in paediatrics and paediatrics intensive care, cited an article out of Britain which placed the AstraZeneca vaccine on par with the others in its effectiveness for the elderly and younger population.

This was seen as significant in light of Barbados’ large elderly population, whose over-70s are estimated to be about 11 per cent of the total population.

Dr Edwards also provided an additional scientific perspective as to why this country chose the Oxford AstraZeneca jab.

He declared: “We have an excellent choice here in the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine for Barbados… meaning we have a vaccine that is thermodynamically stable for our climate… so the vaccine is stable up to 30 degrees Celsius, so we can deploy this in the field in our vaccination campaign.”

He also noted that the vaccine has standard refrigeration requirements from plus two to plus eight degrees Celsius, something to which Barbados is accustomed.

“So our health system…our health sisters can handle this perfectly. When you consider a mass vaccination rollout, you have to put a lot of things into context. So for an effective campaign, we would want to deliver as many vaccinations as possible. We would like to cover all of Barbados,” suggested Dr Edwards.

“So we need a tool that is effective. And that is what we are going to get. It is stable in our climate. So we can give this vaccine in our clinics. We can give this vaccine at an off-clinic site. We can do campaigns throughout the island quite comfortably with this vaccine.”

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)

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