Editorial | COVID-19 vaccine – the jab to get us moving

With two vaccine trials being declared more than 90 per cent effective and safe, there seems to be a light at the end of the deadly COVID-19 tunnel.

Vaccines developed by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, and Moderna, a United States company, are seeking the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while the United Kingdom has become the first country to approve Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Usually, vaccines take years, sometimes as much as a decade, to move through the phases of development, testing and manufacture. For example, it took Jonas Salk six years to develop and test the first polio vaccine. But we are assured by the scientists that speed did not affect the integrity of the process.

The global community of scientists, including immunologists and vaccine experts, were able to accomplish these results in a record-breaking 11 months. There are reportedly 48 candidate vaccines worldwide in various stages of development.

Our neighbour Cuba also has a vaccine on the horizon. Cuba is said to be in talks with France and the World Health Organization (WHO) about vaccine cooperation, while it is currently drawing up a manufacturing strategy to enable it to produce millions of doses for its population.

Assurance of Access in 2021

Jamaica and many other Caribbean neighbours have been given the assurance that they will have access to vaccines in 2021, with the help of COVAX, a collaborative initiative of the WHO and it global partners. COVAX has so far raised US$2 billion, but it needs another US$5 billion to ensure that poor countries have access to vaccines. Will it be able to raise this sum without the support of the US and, if it doesn’t, what will it mean for our country?

We recall that in 2018, the H1N1 swine flu vaccine did not become available to poor countries like ours until about nine months after rich nations had procured their supplies. As far as COVID-19 is concerned, rich nations have already put in their orders for millions of doses.

The scientists tell us that at least 70 per cent of a country’s population will have to be vaccinated in order to induce ‘herd immunity’. This is an important consideration because containment of the virus is the only thing that will guarantee a return to normal life.

Pfizer and Moderna predict that 35 million doses of vaccine will be available this year, and one billion more next year. But before we even get to the distribution of vaccines, there needs to be a national conversation to assure sceptical members of the public that the vaccine is safe, that integrity of the protocols is intact and there are no serious side effects.

To vaccinate or not is being widely discussed all over the world. The anti-vaxxers – those who oppose vaccines are called – are spewing multiple conspiracy theories, along the way spreading fear and mistrust to their more than 30 million followers on social media.

It is understandable that African Americans, still smarting from unethical US Government-sanctioned medical research into syphilis between the 1930s and 1960s, may be suspicious in this the efficacy of the research. It means that public-health officials will have to give them the assurance to make them more acceptable.

In light of the leadership vacuum in Washington, DC, we see where former US presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have stepped forward, stating their willingness to take a jab on television, to demonstrate confidence in the vaccine.

We think a public-education campaign is needed urgently here, too, in order for people to get comfortable with the idea of taking a vaccine. For starters, we must remember that this is what got polio and smallpox eliminated.

In the meantime, there is no room for complacency, as it is estimated to be many months before the vaccine reaches Jamaica. So we must continue to wear masks, keep social distance and sanitise.

Optimistically, we need to embrace the COVID-19 vaccine as the shot in the arm that the world needs to get back on its feet and start moving once more. Our advice: Get ready to take that jab.