Data shows vaccines protect against the novel coronavirus

Apr 24, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

The vaccines against Covid work, at least, in New York and in Guyana. I make this claim from my personal experience and that of individuals who took it and from my examination of data of the Greater Richmond Hill area in Queens. The infection rate has been going down in this community, which recently had the highest rate of Covid in the US, if not globally. People who took the vaccine are ‘very (but not absolutely) protected’ against the virus.
There are individuals, who have been vaccinated but still got the virus, but they have not been hospitalised, not died and their symptoms have been very mild. There are also Guyanese, who have been vaccinated and were not infected when exposed to Covid victims. I am one of them as are many of my siblings and many other Guyanese
Vaccines have an efficacy or intended success rate against the virus. Moderna is 94%, Pfizer 95%, Sputnik 95%, Covishield 82%, Covaxine 72%, Johnson and Johnson 72%; Covishield (Serum Institute of India) and Covaxine (Bio Tech) are Indian vaccines and are being used in Guyana. Two doses of Covishield raise the efficacy to 93%. Ditto Covaxine. These figures suggest that even if vaccinated, one is not absolutely protected from the virus. One can still get infected but the effects would not be severe and one will not die. So far, no one has died from the vaccine itself in India or in Guyana. No vaccinated person has died in Guyana.
The CDC reported that 5,800 out of 75 million fully vaccinated people in the U.S. have been infected with COVID-19. Of these “breakthrough cases,” 396 were hospitalised and 74 people died; very low rate (of .0075% or less than a fraction of 1%) of infection and death. That is impressively high. Similarly in India, out of 140M vaccinated, only a few hundred (less than .0001%) have side effects. With regards to Guyana, some 100K people have been vaccinated. With an efficacy rate of 82% from Astra Zeneca, then 18% or 18K are at risk of getting the virus. But so far, no vaccinated person has been infected suggesting an efficacy rate of 100%. There should be contact tracing in order to obtain data on the transmission of the virus to better study and combat it. Clearly, Astra Zeneca or Covishield seems to be working differently on Guyanese than on the population in Europe. The Astra Zeneca used in Europe is made in that continent and in South Korea. In Guyana, a similar efficacy as Astra Zeneca seems to have been obtained from Sputnik. It is not known if Sinopharm has been administered on anyone in Guyana and the outcome. People I spoke with in Guyana during my recent trip are resisting taking the Sinopharm; they have greater faith in the Indian Covishield that has been working in India with an efficacy rate similar to Guyana’s.
In looking at the infection rate in Richmond Hill, in January it was some 16%. As I travelled around Richmond Hill in February and March, I noticed long lines of Indo-Guyanese and Punjabis at various testing sites set up by the city administration based on lobbying of community leaders. Vishnu Mahadeo has been very successful in championing the presence of mobile testing units in the community almost daily. Testing in New York is free without any limit and people are encouraged to test multiple times. Testing has allowed people to take steps to prevent infection that really went through the roof a few months ago. There are also several vaccination sites all over New York including in Richmond Hill. Mandirs, Masjids, Churches, Gurudwaras have been used as testing as well as vaccination sites as the city seeks to ground with communities as partners in the fight against Covid.
The number of infections in America, Guyana, and India after being vaccinated is not alarming or a serious cause of concern. If one were to compare the Covid vaccine with the flu vaccine, there is a noticeable difference in efficacy. The flu vaccine has only a 60% efficacy. Yet people take it to combat the flu. The same thinking must go into taking the Covid vaccine. And regardless of whether one has been vaccinated, it is advisable that one still take the precautions like masking up and social distancing and live a healthy life (diet, exercise, eat wisely consuming a lot of fruits and using herbal products like neem, tulsi, karela, and the like – they seem to work).
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram

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