[ad_1]
Dr. Dacosta Aboagye – Risk Communication Team Leader of the National COVID-19 Response
The National COVID-19 Response Risk Communication and Community Engagement Team has dismissed the claim that coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines cause infertility, illness and death.
Therefore, the team has reassured the public that the country has done all due diligence regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines and has called on everyone to seize the opportunity to reduce their vulnerability to the disease when they have the opportunity to take the vaccine. .
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra last Saturday, team leader Dr. Dacosta Aboagye said there was absolutely nothing to fear about vaccines.
Two vaccinations
Currently, the government has decided on two vaccines: Covishield (AstraZeneca vaccine from THE Serum Institute in India) and Sputnik V from Russia.
Dr. Aboagye’s words of encouragement were based on the public’s mixed reaction and anxiety to the government’s announcement of the arrival of 600,000 initial doses of the vaccines.
While some said they would accept the blows, others said they would not because they saw it as a ploy by the developed world to wipe out Africans.
There have also been rumors about serious side effects of vaccines, such as causing death, infertility, and people testing positive for HIV after being vaccinated.
But the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) and expert immunologists have described the rumors as myths to be ignored.
The FDA, which approved the vaccines for local use, said it had followed the administration of the vaccines globally and could attest that there were no associated side effects or public health problems.
He said the chills and fever were generally associated with vaccines, but disappeared within a couple of days, just as they did with many other medications.
Myths against vaccines
Dr. Aboagye, who is also the Director in Charge of Health Promotion at the GHS, said the safety and risk assessments conducted with the vaccines did not show any of those side effects and described all the anti-vaccine rumors as myths. that should be ignored.
He said there was no cause for alarm as the government promised to ensure that no lives were affected in the exercise. He stressed that receiving the vaccine was in the public interest and the health of the person.
He said claims on social media that COVID-19 vaccines could affect female and male fertility were unfounded and unscientific.
“Rumors arising from unfounded reports that some people abroad who received the vaccines have had side effects that have rendered men powerless or reduced their virility should be ignored. Infertility is not the only gossip about the vaccine, people also believe that vaccines are destined to depopulate Africa, ”he said.
Dr. Aboagye denied the claims and called on Africans, especially Ghanaians, to receive the vaccine for their protection and prevention from the deadly virus.
How vaccines work
In shedding more light on how vaccines work, Dr. Aboagye said that when one was injected with the vaccine; sent a message to the body with a blueprint that allowed it to produce a small, harmless fragment of the distinctive coronavirus “spike.”
That, he said, triggered the immune system to kick in to produce antibodies and white blood cells to fight the virus, as well as recognize it if it was found again.
“Vaccines do not transmit the virus to you and they have no way of affecting your genetic information. Messenger particles have an extremely short life because they are destroyed immediately when they deliver their message and that is why vaccines must be stored so carefully.
Public education campaign
Dr. Aboagye said a special education and community engagement campaign was launched last week that included key stakeholders to reassure people and encourage them to get vaccinated.
He said public education will be intensified to coincide with the vaccination period, adding that public education materials such as brochures, pull-ups, jingles in English and other local languages have been developed for dissemination.
Media engagements on COVID-19 vaccines organized by the Ministry of Information would continue as another platform to explain the benefits of vaccines to the public and address myths and misconceptions.
Immune booster
An immunologist and researcher at the West African Center for Infectious Pathogens Cell Biology at the University of Ghana, Dr. Yaw Bediako, said that vaccines are a safe and effective way to protect people against harmful diseases even before they enter. in contact with them.
He said vaccines use the body’s natural defenses to build resistance to specific infections and strengthen the immune system.
Dr. Bediako said that in the quest to boost their immunity against COVID-19, people were taking all kinds of concoctions and self-medicating with a number of medications.
However, he said, vaccines were the most effective immune boosters and as such encouraged the public to take advantage of the national vaccination program.
Writer’s Email: This e-mail address is protected against spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
[ad_2]
