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MAXIN’ THE VACCINE

02/09/2021 08:21:00 BY CHRIS MORGAN

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If you grew up in Eswatini in recent years then you should have a card which shows that, when you were very young, you had some or all of the following vaccinations: BCG which deals with tuberculosis, HBV which deals with Hepatitis B, and DPT which deals with diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.

Plus the vaccination against polio and, less frequently obtained, measles and chickenpox. You don’t need smallpox vaccination any longer because we’ve kicked that virus off the planet. At the time you, the toddler patient, had no choice in the matter; that was fortunate because you might have said no. You will recall the pacifying words of your parents, especially at the moment that naughty little needle was stuck into you.

Remember

If you were the parents you will remember how vital it was to protect your children through vaccination; helping you all to be here today! What neither parent nor child will remember are the risks faced by everyone in the days when those vaccines were not available; mainly because they hadn’t been discovered or invented. Aren’t we lucky to live in such relatively safe times! In a couple of 100 years – assuming global society lasts that long – the inhabitants of planet earth will be gobsmacked (a word whose usage should be prohibited after today) that we didn’t all live to 120; only an average of 75 years. And that’s if you’re lucky, have a good standard of living, with access to decent medical care facilities. In 2221 there may even be vaccinations that enter the cerebral sphere and guide all vehicle drivers to conduct themselves safely and avoid unnecessary death on the roads. Favourite subject? Very close, definitely.

Question

And there is a hugely significant question, rhetorical of course at this stage: why are so many people doing their very best to avoid getting vaccinated? I know someone in Mbabane who employs seven staff, all educated adults. He asked all seven employees, confidentially, whether or not they would get vaccinated against COVID-19. Only two said ‘yes’. Whaat? The reason is not known. But what is certain is that the main vaccines, definitely those used by the Government of Eswatini, have been tried and tested by some of the greatest medical and scientific experts known to mankind. So who are we to doubt them? I believe there is fear, arising perhaps from association with such a destructive virus and the thought of admitting it voluntarily into the body. In fact, none of the vaccines contain the actual virus, only a small fragment of genetic material that prompts your body to create an immune response. There are often side effects from the vaccine, but the occasions when these are very serious are a tiny fraction of the number of vaccinations. You’ve got more chance of winning lots of Euros in a European lottery than getting very serious side effects. You’d have to buy the lottery ticket first, of course.

But why do we need to persuade most, if not all, of our people to get vaccinated? Because it will accelerate the achievement of herd immunity. Otherwise we won’t get there for a long time. And herd immunity is when a very high percentage of the world’s population has either contracted the virus or has been vaccinated. With the earlier versions of COVID-19, that proportion of the population was considered to be 70 per cent. With the Delta variant the figure is generally viewed as nearer 90 per cent. That’s a huge challenge but when that percentage is reached the COVID-19 virus will lose its grip on the world and gradually fade into insignificance. Do you worry about getting the Spanish Flu that 100 years ago was far more devastating than COVID-19 (on present expectations)? And where is the Spanish Flu today? Nowhere; it faded into the margins when herd immunity was reached.

The whole world has to achieve herd immunity because while there are substantial blocks of unvaccinated people anywhere in the world there is the risk of new variants. That’s what happened with India and the Delta variant. The virus mutated into something more infectious and made the infected twice as likely to need hospital treatment. Even the wealthy countries of the world with high vaccination rates are not fully safe until global herd immunity is reached; because the existing vaccines are not guaranteed to protect from every potential variant of COVID-19. Vaccine boosters will help though.

In Eswatini we are at 14 per cent vaccination. We and other low vaccination level countries must prioritise, above almost everything, a much faster pace of vaccination. Government representatives should express confidence in the vaccine and not concede gaps for doubt to creep in. And the wealthy countries must help more with the supply of vaccine; after all, they have so much to gain from herd immunity themselves.