Deyalsingh: Covid19 vaccine will be free of charge

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said when the covid19 vaccine becomes available to the population at large, “all human beings” including non-nationals, would have access to it free of charge.

He recalled that in 2019 Cabinet approved the provision of public health care to non-nationals including “immunisation and treatment of communicable diseases” and “other high-risk infectious diseases.”

He reminded that under the Covax facility, TT would receive vaccines approved by the World Health Organization. And although the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the United States, UK, Canada, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, no covid19 vaccine has been approved by WHO.

During the Health Ministry’s virtual press conference on Saturday morning, Deyalsingh also noted that all drugs had side effects and encouraged people not to let side effects in a few people stop them from taking the covid19 vaccine when it becomes available.

“What I would like the public to know from a policy perspective is that we must not overreact when we hear about side effects because of the heightened news coverage about vaccines. Every single drug has side effects. From aspirin to paracetamol could damage your liver but because of the heightened concern about vaccines, I don’t want the public to zero in on the one or two reported side effects and lose sight of the good that vaccines do.”

Dr Jeanine St Bernard, County Medical Officer of Health for Caroni, gave the example of aspirin in children. She said common side effects include heartburn, nausea, stomach cramps, and vomiting. Rare side effects include rupture of the intestinal wall, decrease in blood clotting, anaemia, anaphylaxis, blistering of the skin, seizures and others.

Responding to a question from the media, Deyalsingh said any private entity could import any drug or vaccine once it is registered with the Chemistry, Food and Drugs Division of the Ministry of Health.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram added that the ministry would ensure safety and efficacy.

“What we usually look for as well is that that particular drug is also registered with an international agency that has stringent regulatory authority.”

Deyalsingh continued to encourage people to get the influenza vaccine before March 2021 as he did not want people to have to get the flu and covid19 vaccines at the same time.

He said only about 3,000 people were vaccinated for the flu in the past four weeks, a total of 50,137 for the flu season. The ministry believed because of the public health measures people were not contracting the viral infections like the cold and the flu as often. And because there had yet to be a death due to the flu, people “dropped their guard.”