By Staff Reporter
SWAKOPMUND, June 1 – Statistics and data prove that Covid-19 vaccines are indeed working. However, there’s still hesitation from the public about getting the vaccine. So the Government Information Centre with the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS), as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO), gathered on a live stream on Tuesday afternoon to clarify issues in REGARD to Covid-19 vaccines.
According to the WHO’s technical officer for Public Health Emergencies, Roseline de Wee, it’s because of the vaccine that many economies in the world have opened up.
“From the beginning, we said the vaccine only protects you from contracting the disease around 50 or 60%, however when it comes to preventing hospitalisation and death it goes over 90% and it’s evident in our own setting too,” she said.
She stated that there are quite a lot of factors that come into play when one says: “I’m fully vaccinated”. As it means a lot of things in terms of Covid vaccination. For example: did you take the two doses and a booster? And if you got the two doses … what’s the time interval in between? Was it one month before the second dose or one week etc?
“The vaccine needs a couple of days to complete the whole process of the antibodies development,” said De Wee.
Studies have also shown that the AstraZeneca vaccine requires more time, as a long time between dose one and dose two, guarantees better protection.
She added that a few of those who got re-infected probably got the vaccine last year and their immunity might have already gone down. Therefore, there are a lot of factors that come into play as a result of one’s reinfection.
“Sometimes the rising issue could be that the body simply did not make the necessary antibodies,” she said.
“… and coming from an immunisation background, we have seen that for some reasons, even if you do get vaccinated and the body did not, what we call ‘seroconvert’, the vaccine will not be fully effective, as the immune system is very complex”.
De Wee stated that vaccinated people falling into a coma might not have done the process correctly, or they could have other underlying issues like diabetes or heart conditions and other serious complications. And as a result, their antibodies have simply become too weak to react to the vaccine.
“Data from the MohSS analysis shows that people that have comorbidities are more likely to succumb eventually to Covid-19.
“If we still think the vaccine is experimental, what about the millions of people who have already been vaccinated and are still alive and well?,” asked De Wee.
She said they have a committee called National Adverse Events where vaccinated people can report their complications caused by the vaccine. – Namibia Daily News
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