Trinidad and Tobago does not have an anti-vaxxer problem.
With people hounding down the vaccination centres to get their jab, the country’s bigger problem is its inability to access vaccines because other countries are hoarding them.
So said the Prime Minister on Wednesday morning on the Now Morning show on TTT.
“We are not there yet, with anti-vaxxers refusing to use it. More and more people are seen coming out to get vaccinated.
"While the vaccine is not a cure, it allows the population to not end up with such a high morbidity.”
He said people have compared the country’s vaccination programme with other countries, but TT could not replicate the same rollout as these other countries because itcould not buy vaccines in either the public or private sector.
One of the reasons why the country did not get major buying priority, he said, is because of its early success in managing the pandemic.
“Our situation is a bit better than the others. In allocating vaccines in the first tranche, we were treated as if 'you don’t need it as badly as others.' In managing the country's affairs, that we were not as badly off as others, that worked against us.”
He said while Guyana used Chinese and Russian vaccines before the World Health Organization (WHO) approved them, this country will not do so.
“Hopefully, as the months pass and the production is improved, more vaccines are certified and the people who are hoarding it are no longer hoarding it. It should become easier and easier for countries like ours to get access to the vaccine, and we are already in that pipeline.”
He said not one of his colleagues in Caricom has been able to go into the marketplace and buy a single vaccine, because it is not available.
“We go out, but out does not have any vaccines to supply. We have been talking to the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm producers - the authorised suppliers - but going out does not mean I am going to get vaccines. You can only get it if it is out there...You go out there, but there are no vaccines to be bought out there.”
He said the government directly asked Pfizer, but was told the company could not supply to TT.
“All the calls being made to vaccinate the population – with what? When the vaccines are available in the international community, to buy, to obtain, to negotiate, we are there, we are doing as good as anyone in the region, and much better than many people in the world.”
He said the country has an agreement with the Africa Medical Supplies Platform, and when the platform gets a “big purchase, TT would be riding with them.”
The Russian-developed Sputnik vaccine is the only type of vaccine the country is not pursuing, he said, but he will try to buy the others, including the Cuban-developed vaccine Soberana 2, once it gets WHO approvals.
Addressing those with doubts about the vaccine because of the side effects, he suggested they pay attention to the upsides of the vaccination, and encouraged the public to trust the scientists.
Rowley said all medications people use have side effects,
