THE EDITOR: I agree with Prime Minister Rowley that the Sunday Express story on the Sinopharm vaccine is borderline irresponsible. Both the headline and opening of the article disingenuously sought to sensationalise the 'results' from testing only four people at a local medical laboratory.

While the other aspects of the article appeared to be well researched and informative, the impact of citing four tests commissioned by that newspaper clearly detracted from the latter and makes a mockery of good investigative journalism.

The PM is therefore right to question 'where is the science' in this approach, as any quasi-scientific investigation would at least attempt to address statistical validity, sample size, inherent errors, and innate limitations of the tests themselves.

Whereas I hold no brief for the Sinopharm vaccine, we can all appreciate the 'early-days' context of 'take any vaccine' and the economic and supply-chain realities faced by the Ministry of Health in procuring vaccines to protect the nation from the ravages of the coronavirus.

Hesitancy in the population is bad enough without this type of added misplaced sensationalisation. The journalism profession becomes tainted if this behaviour can sneak past editors, causing credibility to be sacrificed on the altar of readership attention-seeking.

With the omicron variant already in the community, loud clarion calls for 'take the vaccine' are essential.

FAZIR KHAN

St Augustine

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