....What the other part of the world is saying.....
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In Malawi, people are asking doctors how to expunge the AstraZeneca vaccine from their bodies.
In South Africa, health officials have paused giving the Johnson & Johnson shot, the only one they have, a repeat blow after dropping AstraZeneca from their arsenal in February.
And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, not a single person has been vaccinated, despite 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca shot languishing in the country since March 2.
In those countries and others, Western colonialism and unethical medical practices have left a residue of mistrust, one that health officials worry could kindle an explosion of anti-vaccine fervor if the perception takes hold that rich countries are dumping second-rate vaccines on the global south.
Already, doctors say, the recent pauses have vindicated vaccine skeptics and made many others feel duped.
“People, especially those who were vaccinated, felt like they had been tricked in a way — they were asking, ‘How do we get rid of the vaccine in our body?’” said Precious Makiyi, a doctor and behavioral scientist in Malawi, where health workers have been racing to empty their shelves of nearly expired AstraZeneca doses. “We fought so hard with vaccine messaging, but what has happened this past week has brought us back to square zero.”
African health officials have reacted with fury at the breezy reassurances of American and European lawmakers that people denied the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson shots could be given another vaccine. In much of the world, there are no other vaccines.
And even as American health officials stressed that they paused use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Tuesday in “an abundance of caution,” they forced global health officials to begin crafting the difficult case that shots unsafe for the world’s rich were still suited to its poor.
“It’s sending vaccine confidence into a crater,” Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance, said of rich countries’ actions. “It’s irresponsible messaging, and it speaks to the selfishness of the moment that there wouldn’t be more consultation and communication.”
Well, like my pastor said “ Be very, very careful what you inject into your body”, injections are not like pills that can be discontinued when the side effects are noticed....many out there with buyers remorse....and with good reason.
Exactly. Having a mast cell disorder, I know the risks of taking something you can react to.
If I ingest it, it gets metabolized fairly quickly and is out of my system in a day or two.
If I get an injection and react, there’s no way of sticking another needle in my arm and sucking the stuff out. It’s in there and I will continue to react to it for the duration, however long that takes.
Forget it.