Commentary: Concerns over long-term side effects could hold back Singapore’s COVID-19 vaccination programme
SINGAPORE: It has been just over a year since severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-ii (SARS-CoV-2) emerged as a cause of the respiratory disease, COVID-19.
Despite this relatively short time, this virus has afflicted more than than 100 million effectually the earth. More than 2 million COVID-19 patients accept died.
In fighting the greatest public health crisis in a century, the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines is thus much welcomed. In Singapore, seniors aged seventy and above will receive COVID-19 vaccination letters over the next few weeks, afterwards pilots have been conducted in Tanjong Pagar and Ang Mo Kio.
Vaccination mimics an encounter with the virus to railroad train the body's immune system to retrieve, recognise and rout this virus if it always strikes.
Initial signs of Israel's COVID-xix vaccination programme, one of the first and fastest in the earth, are giving promise to many healthcare professionals globally. Loftier vaccination coverage in this country has led to remarkable drop in the number of new COVID-xix cases.
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Every bit with other vaccines with which we accept successfully controlled including dreaded diseases such as smallpox and polio, the antiviral defence offered by COVID-19 vaccines will assist reduce SARS-CoV-2 infections and foreclose the spread from the upper to the lower airway, thereby reducing the likelihood of astringent respiratory illness.
PROTECTION FROM VACCINES TRUMP SIDE Furnishings
Like all vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines have side furnishings that range from mutual but balmy symptoms to severe simply rare atmospheric condition.
Common side furnishings such as pain at injection site, fever, body ache, headache and tiredness generally concluding more often than not for a day or two and go away without requiring any medication.
Some are, nonetheless, concerned about "long-term" side effects. Amongst the ten healthcare workers interviewed past TODAY in January, half were concerned the possible long-term effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have not been studied.
These "long-term" side effects are mostly off-target effects of the immune response against the viral protein which may happen when antibodies developed after vaccination and infection tin react against other molecules normally produced by our bodies, such as the sheath that surrounds nerve cells.
For example, these rare reactions are known to happen after certain viral infections including the seasonal influenza. Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurologic condition that causes weakness and paralysis throughout the torso, is known to take been experienced by some people who accept received flu vaccines in the days or weeks subsequently vaccination.
While these "long-term" side furnishings may go along for a prolonged period of time, their onset, if they happen, would usually exist within days to approximately six weeks after vaccination. At that place is no known side event of any vaccine that pops up years later.
Information technology is also of import to know that both short-term and long-term side furnishings are neither new nor unique to COVID-19 vaccines. Most people will fully recover from the adverse events without long-term consequences.
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In addition, these reactions are rare taking into business relationship that we are in the midst of the biggest vaccination push button in history to vaccinate the world against a mortiferous virus.
VACCINATE NOW, Non Later
In view of the possibilities of rare, "long-term" side furnishings of COVID-xix vaccines, some then argue that why not wait until more information on vaccine safety and effectiveness get available as vaccination is non the only line of defense force nosotros accept against SARS-CoV-2.
Singapore, and other countries like New Zealand, have been able to minimise locally caused COVID-19 cases through early case detection and isolation, along with condom distancing measures, mask wearing and travel restrictions.
However, I beg to differ.
Firstly, more than a 100 one thousand thousand people have been vaccinated around the world and reports of vaccine-related side effects remain encouragingly well-tolerated.
Secondly, although physical distancing and quarantine measures do work, these measures are costly for societies and economies around the earth.
Finally, SARS-CoV-2 is now too widespread globally to be eliminated from the human population. Instead, SARS-CoV-ii will likely join the list of man viruses as a common cause of astute respiratory illness.
Information technology is clear that compared with the likelihood of astringent respiratory illness and the development of debilitating "long COVID" from a SARS-CoV-ii infection, the price of not vaccinating far outweighs the risk of agin events from vaccination.
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NOTHING COMPROMISED BY RAPID VACCINE DEVELOPMENT
Based on currently available clinical trial information, the COVID-xix vaccines approved in Singapore, specifically those developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, are both safe and efficacious in preventing COVID-nineteen.
While some question if corners were cut and prophylactic standards were compromised in order to expedite vaccine development, the respond to both questions is a resounding no for two reasons.
First, the record speed in COVID-19 vaccine development is achieved as a upshot of advances in vaccine technology. The new messenger RNA technology in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been employed in breast cancer handling and is non entirely alien to the healthcare community.
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Scientific discipline has also progressed much from the outbreaks of SARS and MERS, both of which are also caused by coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2.
Without additional studies, we knew what function of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to target and had the technologies to evangelize the spike cistron or protein to train our immune system to forbid COVID-19.
Second, given the urgency of this pandemic, the necessary studies on COVID-19 vaccine safe and potency have been conducted in parallel rather than in a series, which is the conventional way.
The adventure in doing so was mainly fiscal – developers committed to the price of multiple studies before knowing if the vaccine candidates were likely to succeed.
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The high incidence of COVID-19 as well meant that the pivotal phase 3 clinical trials for the vaccines approved in Singapore were able to obtain a sufficient number of cases for meaningful statistical analysis in a much shorter time than other vaccines.
DURATION OF Amnesty STILL UNCLEAR
It is truthful that due to the relatively brusque duration of the pivotal clinical trials, we may non yet know if and when a booster vaccination is needed as the protection menstruation from COVID-nineteen vaccines remains to be fully defined. But this should not concur anyone back from vaccination.
This is because breakthrough infections, or infections in vaccinated individuals, tin be detected with surveillance conducted by the Ministry building of Health in Singapore and around the world on even vaccine-preventable diseases.
As a effect, booster vaccination would be initiated when needed. This has happened for other vaccines, including those against measles, mumps and rubella.
At the moment, the ii COVID-19 vaccines bachelor in Singapore are recommended for all adults, except for pregnant women, severely immunocompromised persons, and children under the age of sixteen years for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-xix vaccine and children nether the age of eighteen years for Moderna COVID-nineteen vaccine.
While we will need more data to confirm whether vaccines can help stop transmission of the virus, information technology is of paramount importance that people who are vulnerable and eligible become vaccinated soon to protect themselves from astringent disease.
We must know that vaccines cannot forbid COVID-19 only vaccination can. Therefore, the question is not whether nosotros need to be vaccinated but rather how soon we can be vaccinated and exist protected confronting COVID-19.
Listen to the author outline what'due south needed to get a vaccine manufactured, transported and administered in our Heart of the Matter podcast:
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Ooi Eng Eong is Professor, Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-concerns-over-long-term-side-effects-could-hold-back-singapores-covid-19-vaccination-programme-285976
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