By Fernando Davis

When South Africa, several weeks ago, paused its rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, critics and cynics alike immediately pounced, deeming the vaccine ineffective and undeserving of any future consideration.

What they didn’t or failed to say, however, was that the pause had less to do with efficacy and performance against the novel coronavirus but more to do with preliminary trial data which showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness caused by the variant of the virus that emerged in South Africa last year.

Enter the World Health Organization (WHO)!

With the AstraZeneca vaccine suffering more from what German doctors called a “public relations problem” rather than a scientific problem, the WHO recently stepped in with a stamp of approval for the beleaguered and much-maligned vaccine, giving countries like Jamaica, Canada, France, Australia and over 130 others a sense of reprieve and the knowledge that they weren’t hallucinating in their all-in approach towards AstraZeneca.

The WHO recently listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.

“We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a news briefing.

“We continue to call for COVID-19 vaccine developers to submit their dossiers to WHO for review at the same time as they submit them to regulators in high-income countries,” he said.

A WHO statement said it had approved the vaccine as produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India.

But for Jamaica’s Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, the WHO’s ringing endorsement of the AstraZeneca vaccine couldn’t have been more timely.

“This is good news for us, as a country, as we move closer to the introduction of vaccines in the island, as part of our COVID-19 response. We can now further seek out other sources that have these approved vaccines available, even as we anticipate the arrival of some doses of these COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by AstraZeneca in the coming weeks through the COVID-19 Global Access (COVAX) facility,” Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. Tufton said in response to the WHO’s endorsement.

“Vaccination has proven an undeniable success in the public health toolkit to reduce the burden of infectious disease in Jamaica as well as globally. Immunization –the process by which a person becomes protected against a disease through vaccination –has proven to be one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions ever,” Minister Tufton added.

The COVAX (COVID-19 Global Access) Facility brings together governments, global health organisations, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil society, and philanthropy to provide innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has also moved to assure citizens that the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ planned rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be reliable and safe.

“The Government of Jamaica is doing everything possible to ensure that we have access to vaccines but that whatever vaccines we decided to use…they must be safe. Jamaica has had a long and successful history in deploying vaccines,” the Prime Minister told reporters at a function in St. Catherine last month.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has also thrown its powerful weight behind the AstraZeneca vaccine, noting that approximately two billion doses are being procured from manufacturers for initial deployment through the WHO’s approved COVAX facility, and that delivery to member countries in the Americas is expected to commence shortly.

Speaking during PAHO’s COVID-19 digital briefing on Thursday (February 24), Director Dr. Carissa Etienne assured that the vaccines being provided “are safe and effective”.

“Every vaccine distributed by COVAX has undergone a thorough evaluation by WHO and many by stringent national regulatory authorities, which review data from every step of the developmental process. This approval process is complex and rigorous, so that citizens can trust their safety and efficacy,” she noted.

The director added that while each vaccine is unique, those authorised for use by WHO and delivered through the COVAX Facility “have proven to dramatically reduce the chances of severe COVID infections”.

“So that means people who take them will be safer and, in turn, keep our communities protected as our health systems care for fewer COVID patients. So please, when it is your turn, we encourage you to get vaccinated,” she emphasised.

For her part, St Ann’s Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Tamika Henry says the garden parish has been actively preparing for the roll-out of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as the country awaits its first shipment.

Dr. Henry told a recent meeting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation that preparations were under way and to the point where vaccination sites have been selected, and more than 50 vaccination officers already identified in the parish.

“We have selected some sites, which are the St Ann’s Bay Health Centre; St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital; Ocho Rios, Brown’s Town, and Claremont health centres; and the Alexandria Community Hospital, as our main vaccination centres. We chose those areas because of existing infrastructure, as well as pharmaceutical availability that we do have on hand,” Dr. Henry noted.

She added that vaccinations will also be done at off-site locations such as nursing homes and infirmaries.