Get vaccinated – benefits outweigh the risks—Dr. Carpen

Mar 17, 2021 News

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Roll out of COVID -19 vaccines…

Kaieteur News – While taking the COVID-19 vaccine is not compulsory, Dr. Mahendra Carpen, Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) lead Cardiologist, is urging Guyanese to join in the fight against the deadly virus and get vaccinated.
Speaking about the immunization campaign during a recently aired segment of ‘Your Health Matters’ on Kaieteur Radio, Dr. Carpen addressed several concerns about the safety of the vaccines and its viability to protect against the spread of the deadly virus. According to Dr. Carpen the benefits of the vaccines outweighs the risk of not taking them. He noted that while concerns over the safety of the vaccine are valid, there is scientific data that the vaccines are safe to use.
He noted that, “In fact, the vaccine that is available in Guyana, the AstraZeneca vaccine, has been understudied since the Ebola outbreak in 2014 or 2016, it took a minimum of five years to develop.”
“Scientists had started the process to prepare for the next big thing since then … So the Coronavirus is not new to humans, it is a virus the world has been exposed to in SARS and MERS, which is a Coronavirus. That is, the scientific basis of the AstraZeneca is that it has a timeline of development,” added Dr. Carpen.
The Cardiologist stressed that since vaccines has been historically known as a method of promoting the prevention of diseases, immunization is currently the world’s best bet against COVID-19 and its deadly effects.
“You are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19 without the vaccine than you are if you take it. What the vaccine does is boost your immunity to fight off the infection and stop its spread,” he emphasized.
Dr. Carpen noted however that there are certain categories of people who will not be able to benefit from the immunization programme.
“Based on the scientific data available, the only group of persons who absolutely should not take the vaccines are those who have severe allergic reactions to vaccines in general, or those persons allergic to any component of the COVID-19 vaccines,” he said.
Dr. Carpen is among at least 6,500 persons who have so far benefited from the roll out of the first phase of the COVID-19 immunization campaign, which commenced last month.
In his capacity as a frontline health worker, Dr. Carpen was among the first batch of persons to receive the first dosage of the vaccine. He told Kaieteur Radio that his immunization process has been smooth so far, with little to no side effects.
“This is pretty normal; a slight chill or headache which will generally go away within 24 hours,” Dr. Carpen said.
He explained too that the administration of the vaccine is being done in a much organized way. According to Dr. Carpen, the vaccines are being rolled out in a phased approach to ensure that the most exposed or vulnerable groups of the population benefit first.
He noted that, “The first phase is healthcare workers. The second would be persons over 60 years and those with co-morbidities or underlying conditions, then others would get in the next stage.”
At this point, Dr. Carpen noted, most persons have only received their first dose of the vaccine —a second dose is to be administered within the space of three months.
“The second dose is equally as important as the first one as it will complete the immunization boost against COVID-19 …” he emphasized.
So far, Guyana has benefitted from thousands of vaccines to ensure all healthcare professionals are vaccinated before rolling out the immunization campaign to the wider population.
Just recently, it was announced that Members of Parliament (MP) would have the opportunity to be vaccinated from a recent consignment of COVID-19 vaccines.
Guyana has received 80,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India. This, coupled with the 20,000 doses of Sinopharm, which the Government received from China last Tuesday, brings the total number to 100,000 doses. Both vaccines are being distributed across the regions to ensure that every eligible person is immunized.
Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, said that, “We are going to consider that during this current run because there are not many parliamentarians, we think we will be able to cover them. So, those parliamentarians who would be interested in getting their vaccine, we will make those vaccines available in this round.”
“They’re both within the same range of effectiveness and they do a good job in protecting people from getting the infection, and preventing people from getting the more severe form of the disease, so I think looking at the data, they’re equally effective,” Dr. Anthony said.

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