SIDE-EFFECTS from the COVID-19 vaccines is very low, the Secretary to the Prime Minister and the Deputy Chairman of the Oversight Committee on the coronavirus, Jimmy Rodgers has said.
Dr. Rodgers revealed this in a radio talk-back show.
“To assure us in the public that published report on side effects of the vaccine is very low. A study in the USA said that it comes roughly about one case in every 100,000. That figure is important – it means it’s a rare event,” Dr. Rodgers said.
“For all those on our side, our outpatient at the National Referral Hospital sees about 3, 000 patients every month, 36-thousand every year. They see two anaphylactic reactions (a life-threatening reaction to drug allergies that causes the widespread dysfunction of body systems) on a normal treatment in the Solomon Islands,” Dr. Rodgers said.
However, he said all things will have their side effects.
“I want to assure the public that we don’t know enough about it, we know that people can react to it but we should not spread a message that will cause people to be frightened of it.
“Let us look at it with care and look at how it has improved people’s health in countries that recorded higher cases of COVID-19,” he said.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said in his nationwide address on Monday that Solomon Islands stands to get 180,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine under the COVAX Facility.
Mr. Sogavare said the country had got approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine despite missing out on the Pfizer Vaccines for 0.25 percent of the country’s population.
“We hope to receive 40 percent of the doses during the first quarter of 2021, and the remaining 60 percent will be given during the second quarter of 2021.”
Some countries have stopped the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine because its resistances or effectiveness against the South African strain of the coronavirus was as low as just two percent.
In the case of the Pfizer Vaccine, it has to be stored at minus 70 degrees or below to make it work.
By FOLLET JOHN
Newsroom, Honiara
