Coronavirus: Getting COVID-19 vs. Being vaccinated. Choose wisely!

Apr 25, 2021 Dr Zulfikar Bux, Features / Columnists

---

By Dr. Zulfikar Bux

Kaieteur News – Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt Medical Centre
Friday we had the highest recorded number of COVID-19 infections in a single day in Guyana. This month is now officially the deadliest COVID-19 related month on record in Guyana. We’ve never had so many COVID-19 patients hospitalised at once. The world is going through the worse phase of the pandemic since it began. It’s more than a year now since this pandemic started and we know enough now that we should not be in this situation. There is sufficient evidence of preventative measures that work and we are now armed with vaccines that can slow the spread and weaken the virus. Somehow, instead of choosing to become immune to the virus, we have become immune to the risks it poses and sad tales of the suffering that it has brought on those who have been affected. Today, I wish to present to you the facts about vaccines vs. COVID-19 so that you can hopefully, help to be part of the solution rather than being part of the problem itself.
Deaths with vaccines vs. deaths with COVID-19
There have been a few reported deaths in some countries with specific COVID-19 vaccines that have contributed to vaccine hesitancy, primarily because social media has blown the situation out of proportion. In Guyana, more than 100,000 persons have been vaccinated and we have not had a single reported death from the vaccines. On the other hand, we’ve had 277 deaths from COVID-19 from over 12,000 recorded infections. If we look at the numbers here, at this stage, you have no risk of dying from being vaccinated while your risk of dying increases by two-fold if you are infected with COVID-19.
Symptoms of COVID-19 vs. vaccination symptoms
The symptoms of COVID-19 can vary from mild to severe and your chances of being hospitalised if infected, hovers between 5 – 10 percent depending on where you are in the world. However, hospitalisation and death rates continue to climb with the new variants that are in circulation and your chances are higher now than they were last year. Majority of patients vaccinated, have little or no symptoms from the vaccine and we have not had a recorded hospitalisation from vaccine related symptoms in Guyana. If you look at the evidence thus far, you can get vaccinated, be protected from COVID-19 and most likely, avoid hospitalisation. On the other hand, if you’re not vaccinated and you get COVID-19, your chances of having serious symptoms and becoming hospitalised increases by 5 to 10-fold or even more.
Life with Vaccines vs. life without
If about 80 percent of our population is vaccinated, it means all of us benefits. We can get back to moving around with some amount of freedom as there would be a sufficient number of persons with a defence against the virus thus the risk of it spreading decreases. Those that choose to not be vaccinated are putting themselves, their families and everyone else at risk because they are potential targets that can enable the virus to spread and mutate to forms that may be dangerous to everyone else. In addition, a vaccinated person dying from COVID-19 is close to zero while an unvaccinated person has a two times higher risk of dying from COVID-19. The reality is, those who choose to not get vaccinated are the “wrench in the works” that determines how long we are stuck with this virus and how much deadlier it becomes.
Social media vs. Vaccines
There was a time when the advice of doctors and medical experts carried weight and then came social media. Now, patients refuse tried and tested treatments because of often false narratives they saw on social media. A similar situation is occurring with vaccines which have been tried and tested for decades and have helped us to eradicate or control many diseases. Now “anti-vaxxers” are using social media to peddle untruths or magnify untoward effects of vaccines which have confused many to the point where they avoid vaccines. Most of us when we were little, took up to 10 vaccines that have protected us from so many diseases. It was a time when we were too little to understand social media. Now that we are “educated,” vaccines have become “dangerous” to the point where we ignore the real danger which is the disease itself.
I have given you some real evidence on COVID-19 and vaccines. Analyse the data and be the judge for yourself. Your choice on whether you should be vaccinated against COVID-19 should not be determined from some “random” social media post. Rather, it should be made after consulting with an expert and from analysing the facts.

---

---