Ek deel Dr Maarman se verduideliking oor die vervaardiging van entstowwe:
False claim: "I am not taking the vaccine because it was made too quick and not safe".
Explanation:
Conventionally, vaccine manufacturers take many years to produce a vaccine, and this is usually due to lack of funding, lack of manpower and the bureaucracy or "red tape" of long-winded administrative processes. Furthermore, scientists and researchers usually focus on their respective work streams aside from working on vaccines, and thus, have a nonexclusive focus.
However, during a global pandemic, especially one comprising an airborne virus, and the deaths of thousands of people per day (as we have observed during those first months in China and the USA), dictates a quick response. Therefore, many private funders worked together with governments to direct funding towards vaccine production.
Moreover, scientists from all spheres worked together with technicians and world experts to produce a vaccine. The focus of covid vaccine manufacturers was solely on producing a vaccine and not on other research. The usual bureaucratic processes were adjusted so that attention was focussed on vaccine testing which accelerated the process.
Within this context, vaccines were produced within a year, and testing had begun. After the lab testing phases, vaccine candidates were tested on healthy volunteers; close to one million of them. Based on that evidence, the vaccines were shown to be safe and effective. Now, after close to five billion people have been vaccinated, the evidence cannot be denied, it is safe and effective.
Being vaccinated is better than not being vaccinated at all. Even in South Africa, the Sisonke Trial has shown that vaccines are effective in reducing covid related deaths.
Data shows a reduction in the number of covid-related deaths, despite a rise in new-variant cases in vaccinated countries and in spite of data showing weak immune responses post-vaccination (in a small fraction of people). When we look at the global data, immune responses and antibody counts are, in fact, higher than the unvaccinated antibody profile.
The vaccine has side effects, but nothing that cannot be managed or reversed clinically. Meaning that on a global scale, vaccines are, in actual fact, effective. Surely, there are lessons to learn, and the acquired knowledge will be used to devise a better health strategy in the future. We are getting there, slowly but surely.
