Sixty-one-year old ‘Maselloane Malefane of Tšenola in the capital Maseru has suffered relentless bouts of headache, fatigue and back pains since she received the second dose of the Astra Zeneca Cocid-19 vaccine Sankatana ART Centre on July 15.
She began to experience these symptoms on July 22 and they never went away ever since. She had received the first dose on April 23 and was due for the second dose on July 23, 2021 but a neighbour told her that senior citizens like her had been summoned for the second jab on July 15.
Somehow, Malefane is convinced she is feeling sick because she received her second jab before the designated date. She is one of a growing number of people believed to be experiencing side effects of the Covid vaccine. As a result, there is growing fear of the safety of the vaccine.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), equitable access to safe and effective vaccines is critical to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is hugely encouraging to see so many vaccines proving and going into development. WHO is working tirelessly with partners to develop, manufacture and deploy safe and effective vaccines.
Safe and effective vaccines are a game-changing tool: but for the foreseeable future we must continue wearing masks, cleaning our hands, ensuring good ventilation indoors, physically distancing and avoiding crowds.
In this interview with theReporter’s Neo Kolane, the Expanded Programme on Immunisation officer in the ministry of health, ‘Mamonaheng Posholi sheds light on the safety of Covid vaccines, and helps debunk myths around the vaccines.
COVID-19 vaccines were developed in a very short timeframe. How can we be sure that they are safe?
Usually what happens is that the vaccines take a long time to be developed due to various reasons. First of all, it’s a commitment of resources (money) towards a certain project. If it is not life threatening, it will not be given that much attention, so with the pandemic, it is an attention concerning experts globally.
There should be funding that will be needed for experts to verify such. The advent of the pandemic saw all efforts turned towards developing vaccines, going through all the required stages, the first of which was to determine if it is safe to be consumed by human beings before the rollout. All the resources were committed, and the pharmaceutical companies committed their time to finding solution for this.
How does the approval process for COVID-19 vaccines work?
There are stringent regulatory authorities in different countries. A particular set of experts is needed in every country but for a country which cannot afford an expert, they use what we call a reliance.
As Lesotho, for our regulation and approval of vaccines, we rely on WHO. In WHO there is what we call Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) which is a group of experts which analyses vaccines individually with a vaccine profile and within the profile they find proof that they can trust it to be used by human beings.
In the regulation, what makes the regulation pass is safety then the effectiveness as well as benefit against the risk.
How can we be sure that vaccines will not put us at risk in terms of side effects and severe adverse reactions?
There are two ways to this; firstly, we look at the vaccine profile and making sure one uses vaccines that are approved by WHO.
Secondly, we look at the human being during vaccination to check that you are not sick. Usually during intense screening, questions are asked about coughing, it’s both a responsibility of the health worker and as a community.
One should be honest about their sickness and not be pressurized by wanting to get the vaccination card. We will need an intense screening health worker and an honest patient.
How do we know if the mRNA vaccines that are based on new technology are safe?
Before there is a vaccine rollout, the vaccine should go through clinical trials. It’s safety profile determines how people react to it. It is not about the mRNA technology or virus factor; all vaccines go through the trials before they are distributed to be used.
What does it mean when we say that a vaccine has been given emergency use authorization by WHO?
It means the group of experts called SAGE asses that we are in a situation of a pandemic or emergency and it is possible to approve that vaccine used in this regard before issuing a letter that it should be used of not.
The approval is that the vaccine is entered into the emergency listed. All WHO medication; for instance, there would be AstraZeneca because it would be used to relief emergency.
Can someone vaccinated against COVID-19 still get infected?
One can be infected with COVID19 but not get sick; which is what we want. Studies say that infection rate lowers when the population has vaccinated.
What are the benefits of getting vaccinated?
Whether you are vaccinated with AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson or other vaccines which we are yet to receive, the goal is the same, every vaccine has a primary role that one should not suffer severely from a disease or get hospitalized due to COVID. It lowers the severity; one may be infected but get sick.
Which vaccines are in circulation in Lesotho?
AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
What are the side effects of each to different people?
We have general information regarding side effects, but we realized that if a person had underlying issues associated with “today, I am sick,” then the side effects will look worse.
But as human beings, we are different, I cannot decide there and then that after a certain person has vaccinated they will get a headache or fever.
We cannot say, because what makes a person have events after immunization is because after taking vaccine, the body fights this vaccine that has been inserted in it and in response to the fighting it releases antibodies that are needed to fight COVID-19 if one gets in contact with it.
How can the possible side effects be treated at home?
We recommend that if one experiences side effects, they should go to the nearest health facility for proper treatment but what we can say is that when one has side effects, they should not panic.
If is it a headache, take painkillers and lots of water but the most important thing is if one has more severe side effects then they should go and report it to the nearest health facility because the health workers will know the right treatment.
What I know is that some people when they have side effects, they say they were told that they might vomit, have diarrhea or headache so they ask why they should go there, they must know that they should go because the treatment can be solved.
We would not want a person to die or get sick.
Which hospital can people go to if side effects persist?
Any health facility that has a hospital and a clinic because there is no specific health facility that deals with side effects of COVID-19.
As the ministry of health, what are you doing to ensure there is dissemination of vaccine information throughout the country?
At the moment, we have radio slots procured for the ministry. On TV, we are being invited and we are planning on making adverts which will start from next week.
