By Stephen Kangal
December 23, 2021
The emotionally charged response of Prime Minister Rowley to the Sunday Express feature article is exclusively more political than the requisite scientific in relation to his weak defense of the alleged low efficacy of the Sinopharm vaccine.
He procured it with a secretive agreement from the Chinese with a huge cost — loan in a large quantity without obtaining any expected guarantee about its expected efficacy level even though scientists from developed countries refused to accept it as a genuine vaccine because trial results were not published globally and were not accessible.
It is a fact that the largest amount of people who died globally during the current pandemic were those who received the Sinopharm.
The appropriate and credible medical professional to react to the St Augustine Medical Lab’s alleged report highlighted by the Express should have been the CMO, Dr Roshan Parasram—not a politician like Rowley whose credibility in things political hit ground zero two weeks ago.
Dr. Rowley has Sinopharm cocoa in the sun.
The argumentation that he invoked for chastising the Express are all political and non-scientific.
The development of COVID vaccines is evolutionary and a work in progress starting with the current emergency use of all the vaccines without undergoing the time-consuming trials on a large scale basis. COVID vaccines are producing millions of guinea pigs today in the Third World.
It is quite clear the Sinopharm Chinese vaccine falls short of generating the requisite titers or levels of neutralising antibodies and therefore failed to measure up to sustainable protection. It was a Chinese scam that Rowley acquired without obtaining the necessary and mandatory medical guarantees from the PRC at a huge cost to the T&T tax-payer.
Have we done any research on the 2600 and counting fatalities in T&T and how many of the 2600 received the Sinopharm vaccine? Should we still be offering the non-inducing neutralising antibodies Sinopharm to our people? Must we not go for the Pfizer as the preferred and well-documented generator of neutralising antibody alternative?
When the Sinopharm contract was signed with a billion-dollar Chinese loan T&T was buying cat in bag, the cat has escaped and hundreds of our people may have perished albeit fully vaccinated.
This is what happens when politicians and rock scientists make medical decisions with respect to our response to the COVID pandemic.
” The development of COVID vaccines is evolutionary and a work in progress starting with the current emergency use of all the vaccines without undergoing the time-consuming trials on a large scale basis. COVID vaccines are producing millions of guinea pigs today in the Third World.”(KANGAL)
This is false information and very damaging to the vaccination program in T&T.
The knowledge that was gained through past research on coronavirus vaccines helped speed up the initial development of the current COVID-19 vaccines.
The clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines have involved tens of thousands of volunteers of different ages, races, and ethnicities. Clinical trials for vaccines compare outcomes (such as how many people get sick) between people who are vaccinated and people who are not. Because COVID-19 continues to be widespread, the vaccine clinical trials have been conducted more quickly than if the disease were less common. Results from these trials have shown that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, especially against severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
The sinopharm is less efficient than Pfizer and Moderna but it is approved by the WHO and is considered better than being unvaccinated. It provides some measure of protection.
None of the vaccines being administered globally can prevent further and repeat infections and when we were made to believe that vaccines were the magic silver bullet now we have to take third dose booster and in Israel they are giving a fourth dose. Boosters reduce the need for hospitilisation but we eagerly await the vaccine that can stop COVID in its tracks as vaccines are enginerred to do. Meanwhile it is game of trial and error until enough time and data are available to achieve the Holy Grail. Until then we lose lose our loved ones prematurely through inter alia, lack of adequate hospital care.
This virus is more contagious than most.
This virus mutates to keep infecting exponentially while combating the vaccines.
The vaccines ,some more effective than others, are the most proven,effective and reliable tools in combating this attack.
The second most reliable tool is mask wearing.
Boosters are required. not because the vaccine is ineffective, but because of the variants and the highly contagious behavior.
The high rate if infections in T&T is because of vaccine hesistancy and failing to wear masks properly, and ignoring the safety protocols established by the CMO.
The high rate of deaths in T&T can be attributed to the high level of comorbidities in patients who mostly neglect to access regular medical care.
National medical and hospital care in T&T is monumental topic for another day.
New data from the UK indicates that the effectiveness of Pfizer vaccine booster shots in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 as a result of the Omicron variant drops considerably within 10 weeks of receiving the inoculation. https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-agency-pfizer-boosters-ability-to-prevent-symptomatic-covid-wanes-within-weeks/