PAHO Director warns that vaccines alone will not stop the current COVID-19 surge

Published by BBN Staff at April 16, 2021

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Posted: Friday, April 16, 2021. 6:16 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: With regional deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccines slowing, Director of the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. Carissa Etienne, this week reminded countries to yes, continue getting their population vaccinated, but also to continue public health measures to curb the surging pandemic.

Dr. Etienne stressed that in the current wave of the pandemic, infection will not be stopped by vaccine alone: “There are simply not enough of them available to protect everyone in the countries at greatest risk. Therefore, we need to stop transmission by any means possible with the tools we have at hand. This will require comprehensive strategies to both accelerate the rollout of vaccines and control the virus using proven public health measures,” she added, referring to wearing masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene.

In just 45 days, more than 3 million doses of COVAX-procured vaccines have been distributed to 28 of the 36 participating countries, with more than 247 million vaccines of all kinds having been administered whether COVAX-obtained or through individual deals between countries and producers. But deliveries have slowed due to the strains on producers, not to mention the halts called in order to study potential side effects of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

Dr. Etienne pledged PAHO’s continued support and reassurance that by and large, the four most common vaccines authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) – the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, two versions of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and the Janssen vaccine have all proven to be safe and effective and there will be further recommendations about handling the blood clot situation.

“In the meantime, it’s important to continue to administer AstraZeneca vaccines where they are available,” she said. “Almost 200 million people around the world have received AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, and the reports of adverse effects are very rare. These vaccines can save your life and the lives of your friends and family.”

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