Why I took the Sinopharm vaccine

I GOT my first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine on Saturday.

Before you get excited, this is not going to be your typical vaccine hero story.

You see, I got this vaccine not because I'm comfortable with it. On the contrary, I have many misgivings.

First, I don't accept this is the only vaccine our government could have acquired, aside from initial appetisers of AstraZeneca.

Our dependence on Covax was a massive mistake, the consequences of which we are enduring right now. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is on record as saying the company reached out to developing countries in the early stages.

However, most low-income nations passed on placing orders.

In fact, PM Rowley recently alluded to discussions with Pfizer but never explained why they didn't pan out. Additionally, it's curious the US, which has been making vaccine donations to the far corners of the planet (they reach Bhutan and all), has forgotten TT's address.

My second source of discomfort with the Sinopharm vaccine is the paucity of data on its resistance to covid19 variants. Information from clinical trials, real-world applications, and peer-reviewed analysis is scarce. There's a mountain of information on the efficacy of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines. Sinopharm, on the other hand, is far from an open book. This isn't helped by the fact that China isn't exactly a bastion of transparency.

Now, I'm not here to pour doubt on Sinopharm. It's in my body as we speak.

The point is, we cannot ignore the insufficiency of data on its efficacy, particularly against terrifying variants. That brings me to my most serious reservation about Sinopharm – our refusal to have a mature conversation about it. Telling people, “The best vaccine is the one in front of you. Just hush and take it,” is dangerous talk.

In TT, we tend to bury our heads in our behinds and hope for the best. It's why this country is decades behind where it should be. That's fine if you're happy to live with poor public service and brown water in your taps. A laid-back attitude, though, in this instance can precipitate irreversible ruin.

Refusal to talk about Sinopharm means if there is a large number of severe breakthrough cases (infections among the vaccinated), we won't have any contingency plans and we'll be running helter-skelter, as usual. Contingency plans would include gearing up for the necessity of booster shots, allocating funds, and sourcing a supplier.

It just makes no sense to ignore the scarcity of data on Sinopharm's effectiveness against covid19's remixes currently mashing up the dance.

We also seem to be blissfully blasé about gathering our own data. I was floored to hear Dr Avery Hinds recently declare that the vaccine status of people testing positive for covid19 isn't always captured. What? CMO Dr Roshan Parasram, seeking to reassure the public, reports that no fully vaccinated person in TT has succumbed to the virus.

That, however, doesn't tell us how many breakthrough cases we've had.

This is the sort of information needed to guide the full reopening of the economy and keep the population safe.

How long will we have to continue wearing masks and avoiding group gatherings? Will work-from-home need to be made a more permanent option? Is Carnival 2022 realistic?

These are just some of the critical questions we're avoiding by sidestepping data-gathering.

With all of that, you might be wondering why I took the vaccine anyway.

It's simple, really. I am concerned about the delta variant. I have no faith in the Government to shield our maritime borders against its invasion. The delta variant may already have slipped in but is merely undetected because of our abysmal testing. Hell, I'm still worried about the gamma variant, which we pretended wasn't here for as long as could be managed.

Moreover, I don't believe the Government has the competence to manage a rise in infections from delta. If you disagree, just ask gamma.

I have been able to avoid covid19 for 17 months now, but my luck will eventually run out. My prayer is that even if the virus manages to break through the vaccine, I won't become severely ill and require hospitalisation. Still, I'm not putting all my chips on Sinopharm. I will continue to double-mask, physically distance, and avoid meetings or gatherings in enclosed places.

So even though I'm uncertain of Sinopharm's efficacy, I took it because it's the only one I can get at the moment. I at least want to give myself a fighting chance.