Doctors push vaccination against virus

Take the vaccine!

That is the advice being given to Barbadians by the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP), which has given its full support to the vaccination programme being rolled out by health authorities.

In a press release issued by BAMP’s COVID-19 Task Force, the group said although it understood the many concerns and queries by persons pertaining to the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine being used by Government, it maintained the vaccination was not only safe but instrumental in the fight against COVID-19.

“The Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) welcomes the National COVID-19 Vaccination rollout starting with the introduction of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine and we would like to thank the Government and people of India for their generous donation in this regard. This vaccine rollout comes at a critical time for our nation, which is facing community transmission, challenges in laboratory testing and disease outbreaks in our main hospital and nursing homes,” the doctors said in the release.

“Vaccines represent one of the greatest public health achievements in human history. They save millions of lives annually and are safe and essential public health tools. Many Barbadians under the age of 50 would never have encountered deadly and/or deforming diseases such as: smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria or tetanus due to the success of worldwide immunization campaigns and excellent uptake of vaccines in Barbados over the years.

“Vaccines have the potential, with widespread uptake, to globally suppress the pandemic. The ‘speed’ with which COVID-19 vaccine development has occurred is due to well-coordinated research that was already in the making. This has led to several vaccines being released in record time, having successfully completed phase III clinical trials for vaccine safety and efficacy in human candidates.

“All of the current vaccines on the market have been shown to be effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 and have also shown excellent safety records,” the press release added.

BAMP encouraged all citizens to not rely on hearsay, but to talk to doctors and healthcare professionals for information.

While BAMP lauded Government for its decision to vaccinate all healthcare workers and for prioritizing frontline workers, the body offered several suggestions to effectively manage the rollout of the vaccination programme.

Among those are the publication of a vaccine schedule for each category of persons to be vaccinated in the interest of transparency and equity; to increase the vaccine schedule to an 8-12 week dosing interval in accordance with the scientific evidence that highlights increased efficacy (immune response) with the longer time between two doses and continuing engagement and communication with the general public about COVID-19 vaccines to overcome hesitancy and responding decisively to misinformation.

BAMP maintained the importance of practicing physical distancing, wearing masks, maintaining hand hygiene and cough etiquette, even after being vaccinated. (RB)