In the wake of the COVID-19 vaccination, a lot of concerns have come up. Some of these concerns are not substantial and with no evidence. Conspiracy theories here and there is causing a lot of harm than we could have imagined.
It is therefore imperative to get the right resource persons to talk to us about the realities of the issues at stake. In this interview, the host of the Science Digest Show, interviews Dr. Sabastine E. Arthur, a virologist to share with us the right set of information about the vaccination.
To begin with, Dr. Sabastine was asked to throw more light on vaccination and here is what he had to say about it.
Dr. Sabastine: Vaccination is not something new to all of us. Almost everyone of us has received one vaccine or the other (including polio and yellow fever). The idea behind vaccination is to incite the body for prompt action when a causative organism enters the body. This is usually through the production of antibodies which is achieved with the help of memory cells in the body.
Host: Is COVID-19 vaccination that important?
Dr. Sabastine: Yes, it is very important. As you can see, until now there have been the institution of several safety measures but it has not been able to entirely help the situation because not everyone is able to abide by such practices like masking, hand washing and the likes.
The ideal thing will also be to have gotten a drug that can cure the infection but unfortunately, we still do not have that kind of breakthrough yet.
Hence for now, vaccination is very important because it can help prevent people from getting infected and also prevent spreading of the infection.
Host: To what extent should we fear COVID-19?
Dr. Sabastine: We don’t necessarily need to fear COVID-19 but we should appreciate the effect that this pandemic has had on individuals and the society at large. We therefore have to be cautious. The pandemic has claimed about 2 million lives and hence we shouldn’t downplay its impact.
Host: Should the COVID-19 vaccination be mandatory?
Dr. Sabastine: We cannot say it should be mandatory because not everyone can take a vaccine which could be due to an underlying condition that they have. There are also ethical issues surrounding that and hence you can’t make it mandatory. The best we can do is to convince people to take it willingly.
Host: It usually takes a long time to develop a vaccine but we didn’t see that with the Covid-19 vaccines. The whole process was accelerated. Does this go to confirm the conspiracy theories that there is a hidden agenda behind the vaccine that is why we got it that quick?
Dr. Sabastine: Those conspiracies are not true. It was possible to develop these vaccines at a faster rate because the technologies used to develop these vaccines were already there. They just had to tweak it to make sure that it could fight this infection.
Host: How does the mRNA which happens to be the genetic makeup of the virus help in the production of the vaccine?
Dr. Sabastine: mRNA means messenger RNA. It’s a messenger because it only carries information that will be used by the cells to make a specific protein. This protein resembles the spike protein of the coronavirus (what the virus uses to enter human cells). The body then detects this spike protein and produces antibodies against it. These antibodies are responsible and ready for fighting during a future encounter with the virus. The mRNA therefore does not really affect the human body and it degrades after delivery of the message encoded in it.
Watch the video for the full interview and discover a lot of insights about vaccinations.
WRITTEN AND EDITED RESPECTIVELY BY:
Dr. Ehoneah Obed is a registered pharmacist and a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana. He has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and has experience working in a Tertiary hospital as well as various community pharmacies. He is also a software engineer interested in healthcare technologies.
His love for helping others motivates him to create content on an array of topics mostly relating to the health of people and also software engineering content.
He is knowledgeable in digital marketing, content marketing, and a host of other skills that make him versatile enough to uplift any team he joins.
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