Committee set up for global vaccine search

Government said Wednesday it is still pursuing other brands of vaccine for the coronavirus, announcing the formation of a committee to ascertain the suitability of future jabs for Barbadians.

According to Ambassador Liz Thompson, speaking at the latest COVID-19 update, the committee’s role will be to examine factors for other vaccines and make recommendations to Government as negotiations continue for the purchase of vaccines from manufacturers.

  Ambassador Thompson said: “This committee will determine suitability, and other related issues from a medical and logistical perspective, and make recommendations to the Government. There will also be issues relative to pricing considerations, availability to us because just because a vaccine is in the market, it does not mean it is best suited to our conditions, or that it is available to us to purchase.”

The committee members include Dr Kenneth Connell as chair; clinical pharmacologist Maryam Hinds, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at  UWI Cave Hill; Dr Ingrid Cumberbatch, director of the Barbados Drug Service and retired chief medical officer Dr Elizabeth Ferdinand, now the Co-Coordinator of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign.

Ambassador Thompson stressed that the effort around providing Barbadians with scientifically sound vaccinations is not over, as efforts continue to purchase enough doses for most of the population on the island.

She said: “The Prime Minister has indicated that day and night, she is consumed on this effort in the competition in the global marketplace, where Barbados is a small island developing state with a tiny population. A population that is the size of a small town in the United States, when there are countries with wealth, power, and large populations getting vaccines products [that] they can order.

“The EU can order millions of vaccines, Africa can order millions of vaccines, other countries that have populations that run into the tens or hundreds of millions can order large doses of vaccines…Therefore, now that we have the Oxford-AstraZeneca, which is a high-quality vaccine, with high efficacy suited to our climatic conditions and to our population and demographic profile, the effort is continuing to ensure that we have other vaccines.”

A second committee has also been formed to focus on the chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCD), facing select age groups on the island, Ambassador Thompson added.

Lifestyle diseases are high-risk factors for serious complications and death from COVID-19.

“There will be a second committee that will look at persons 18-70 years old in Barbados who have chronic non-communicable diseases,” she said. “This is a particular problem in our national health profile; we will speak to these committees in the future.”

In a response to questions about the safety of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Ambassador Thompson sought to assure that the vaccine, which is part of the first batch of doses received here on Tuesday, is safe to use and effective in its design.

She explained: “We have gotten a vaccine – we have gotten a vaccine from one of the world’s largest producer of vaccines, [and] it is a respected and reliable vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is suitable to tropical climates because it is easier to store than those that require deep sub-zero temperatures. Therefore, that is the vaccine with which we are going [with] at this time.” (SB)