Vaccines Fears Unfounded

Chair of The University of the West Indies COVID-19 Task Force Professor Clive Landis has dismissed claims that COVID-19 vaccines were rushed and that international health regulatory agencies took shortcuts in their haste to get people inoculated.

Rather, the Pro ViceChancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus has given his stamp of approval to the steps and procedures that were followed and said they are already yielding immeasurable benefits by protecting human lives.

Professor Landis was among a team of health experts from the Cave Hill Campus who addressed a town hall meeting on the topic “From Virus to Vaccines:

Dispelling myths and misinformation

about COVID-19” held on 26 August.

Other panellists included Senior Lecturer in Immunology and medical practitioner, Dr. Kim Quimby; Lecturer in Public Health and Epidemiology and Head of the Public Health Group in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Dr. Heather Harewood; Resident Medical Officer, Head of the Student Health Clinic and Part-time Tutor in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Dr. Tania Whitby-Best; and Psychological Counsellor, Office of Student Services, Dr. Jacqueline Benn.

Professor Landis explained that the vaccines were under development for years following the transmission of other types of coronaviruses, such as severe acute

Professor Clive Landis Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal The UWI, Cave Hill Campus

respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) from animals to humans in 2003 and 2012 respectively.

“It’s no coincidence that the Pfizer vaccine was the first one to be approved. With these smart vaccines, their development is intrinsically quicker. I should also point out that they’re intrinsically safe because there is no virus component in them.”

The scientist said when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, regulatory agencies prioritised COVID-19 vaccines for approval. He lauded the transparent review process of the Pfizer vaccine by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

“Absolutely no steps have been, in any way, rushed or anything like that. The

phase one studies were done, looking for hyperacute reactions. Phase two looked at safety, adverse reaction and dose-ranging studies; and phase three involved big clinical studies with several countries, multiple ethnicities, a diverse range of participants … When those results were put out, that’s when the regulatory agencies had enough to go on. The normal procedure is to give emergency use authorisation. That’s done for every vaccine.

“If hypothetically, they had rushed straight to full approval, I would have said ‘they’re cutting corners.’ They did not cut corners; they did everything according to the normal process.”

The medical researcher said he was also satisfied that the benefits of taking the vaccine far outweigh the risks, which have proven to be minimal. Additionally, he noted that the risk-benefit ratio is continuously monitored by regulators.

“The thing that defines the coronavirus disease is that it’s thrombotic [characterised by formation of a blood clot]. So about a third of all people who have coronavirus and have symptoms will have thrombotic complications. I think people are looking for something unrealistic. Vaccines that we have used for hundreds of years all have the same risk-benefit calculation.” Professor Landis dismissed suggestions that new vaccines might be needed in response to the highly contagious Delta variant: “Because the Delta variant is so contagious, it causes more cases and, therefore, you get more deaths. But it’s not because the case fatality rate is especially high; it’s just more contagious and we expect this progression—more contagious, less lethal— to continue. And at some point, maybe a dozen years, maybe 100 years, maybe 1000 years, this virus will just be with us; and it wouldn’t cause any harm.”

The medical experts underscored the need for vaccinations to be supported by non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as mask wearing, physical distancing, contact tracing and limits on social gatherings.

Dr. Harewood pointed out that this was done successfully in Malta and Iceland where vaccination rates were over 70 percent.

“NPIs rely on behaviour; it relies on things being done correctly and consistently and balancing that with fatigue because it has been a long time we’ve been saying to people ‘you can’t do this [and] you can’t do that.’ Sometimes, maybe it’s the messaging that needs to be changed. I think part of the challenge is that, when we look at areas where high transmission has been identified, there has not been the consistent use of protective measures,” she said.

Meantime, Dr. Benn addressed the ongoing tension between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons, which, she agreed, has caused an already stressful situation to worsen. She argued it was possible for those with opposing views to hold rational discussions.

“The vaccinated want the unvaccinated to be vaccinated and the unvaccinated want the vaccinated to stop pressuring them. Then, you have those who are hesitant—not that they fall on the side of not wanting to be vaccinated, but they are still making up their minds.

“I think what we can do is to have more engagement with those persons who are hesitant to help them to understand. We can also engage with those who have made up their minds to find out what their fears are, why they’ve taken such a decision; not necessarily in environments where we are having arguments and shouting, but [where they are] more intimate type of personalised interactions. Those things tend to bring about more compromise and better understanding for both sides.” l

From left: Dr. Jacqeline Benn, Psychological Counsellor, Office of Student Services; Dr. Tania Whitby-Best, Resident Medical Officer and Head of the Student Health Clinic; Dr. Heather Harewood, Lecturer in Public Health and Epidemiology; and Dr. Kim Quimby, Senior Lecturer in Immunology