PAHO warns: Vaccines alone won't stop pandemic

PAN AMERICAN Health Organization (PAHO) director Carissa Etienne has urged countries to employ a comprehensive strategy to implement public health measures to slow the surging pandemic, in addition to immunisation.

Dr Etienne gave the warning on Wednesday amid a slowdown of covid19 deliveries to the Americas as she gave PAHO's virtual weekly covid19 update.

"I cannot stress this enough – for most countries, vaccines are not going to stop this wave of the pandemic. There are simply not enough of them available to protect everyone in the countries at greatest risk."

She said this as Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh announced the return of some measures to combat the spread, including closing beaches and a ban on dining at restaurants and bars.

"We need to stop transmission by any means possible with the tools we have at hand," Etienne warned. "This will require comprehensive strategies to both accelerate the rollout of vaccines and control the virus using proven public health measures," she added, alluding to mask-wearing, physical distancing, and general hygiene.

Etienne highlighted PAHO's Revolving Fund, which has had over three million doses of Covax vaccines delivered to 28 countries. The fund negotiates, buys, and arranges logistics for shipment of vaccines to the 36 participating countries.

On March 31, TT received its initial delivery of 33,600 doses and is due to receive 100,800 allocated doses through May.

She said so far in the Americas, more than 247 million covid19 vaccines have been administered, including those materialising through deals between individual and vaccine producers.

However, Etienne said constraints on producers of Covax vaccines have slowed deliveries, and supplies are not expected to return to normal for several weeks.

"In the meantime," she said, "we cannot rely on vaccines to control transmission."

In just one week, over 1.3 million people contracted the virus, resulting in nearly 36,000 deaths, and since the pandemic began, there have been over 57 million cases and 1.3 million deaths.

"We are not acting like a region in the midst of a worsening outbreak," Etienne said. "Despite ongoing transmission in many places, restrictions have relaxed. Crowds are back, and people are gathering indoors and taking public transportation, often without masks."

Making matters worse, she warned that highly transmissible variants are also accelerating the spread.

She sought to assure all about the safety of vaccines authorised by the World Health Organization, namely the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine, two versions of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and the Janssen vaccine.

She said, "All have proven to be safe and effective. Rare reports of blood clots are under review by regulatory agencies, which are expected to make recommendations soon.

"In the meantime, it's important to continue to administer AstraZeneca vaccines where they are available," she said, adding that almost 200 million people worldwide have received it, and that, "the reports of adverse effects are very rare.

"These vaccines can save your life and the lives of your friends and family."

She briefly addressed the eruption of La Soufriere in St Vincent and the Grenadines, announcing that PAHO had already deployed five public health experts to co-ordinate with the local Ministry of Health.

She said it also shipped 150,000 medical masks, personal protective equipment, medical supplies and covid19 test kits to the affected islands.