Covid vaccine safe for pregnant women: expert

Webinar held to debunk myths about coronavirus vaccination

ISLAMABAD:

The Covid-19 pandemic should be taken as an awakening call to change our priorities at the national level, especially by investing more to improve our healthcare system. This priority shift is the only way forward to revive the economy and ensure that our population is staying safe.

These views were expressed by University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said while addressing a webinar titled ‘Myths and Misconceptions about Covid Vaccine’ held by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), as a part of its campaign ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’ the other day.

Dr Akram presented a detailed account of various vaccine trials conducted in Pakistan under several collaborated efforts, including three clinical trials with 18,000 volunteers. He said that Z-F2001, which is a discovery of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is also under trial whereas Russian vaccine Sputnik is also in the pipeline.

“We are also working on the mutation and variants of the virus and keeping the data updated on UHS mutation browser on a daily basis,” he said. “Pakistan is among 23 countries where vaccine trials have been conducted. It is a welcoming sign that our initial trials have shown good efficacy results.”

He added that many of the countries in the world are eyeing at getting 75 percent of the population vaccinated to stop the local transmission. “However, it is a big ask for a country like Pakistan with 220 million population.”

While debunking various myths about the vaccination, Dr. Akram said that it is untrue that vaccine changes our DNA or cause cases of male impotency. He said the RNA vaccine is safe for pregnant women and even Hepatitis A, B, C, AIDS, and cancer patients should be vaccinated. He, however, added that chemotherapy patients should not take the vaccine in the first three days after their chemotherapy.

“Once you are vaccinated, it takes 28 weeks to create the anti-bodies neutralising effects,” Dr. Akram said, describing the vaccines as a huge blessing for humanity. “We need to take full advantage of it.”

Dr. Akram emphasised that people who have recovered from Covid-19 should also be inoculated against the virus because “the vaccine targets the binding sites of viruses”.

He said the vaccine politics must be redressed with stern efforts as creating misconceptions about the vaccines may have adverse effects not only on our economy but also on our people.

Dr Akram opined that despite virus variation and virus mutations, a vaccine will stay effective which “targets the spikes (S-glycoprotein) of the virus, so even if the virus mutates, it will not get attach to our bodies”.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2021.