By Rathindra Kuruwita

Certain Health Ministry officials were falsely claiming that they could start the vaccination process immediately after Sri Lanka took delivery of the vaccine consignments, President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science, Ravi Kumudesh said yesterday. He told The Island that the vaccination process was not that simple and those false claims might make the people lower their guard. Kumudesh said: “We need to distribute these vaccines around the country. We need to store them and deploy trained professionals to vaccinate people. We need to test the antibodies created after injecting people and be ready to deal with side-effects. We can’t do this overnight. There is also no need to create a crisis by trying to vaccinate people in a hurry.”

Kumudesh also said that the COVID-19 pandemic could not be controlled by vaccinating 300,000 people and that it might take two years to complete the vaccination process. By giving people a false hope that the vaccine might have the same effect as the Dhammika syrup, Kumudesh said. “Let’s assume we get 600,000 vaccine doses. We would only be able to vaccinate 300,000 people. Then we will have to see if the first batch has any side-effects and how many days it takes to form antibodies, etc. We have no idea how a vaccine might react to different varieties of the virus and even how many strains are here.”

Kumudesh added that the government had not even expanded the ability of the health sector to identify new strains of the coronavirus as only the University of Sri Jayawardenepura had a gene sequencing machine. There were at least five strains in Ukraine, from where Sri Lanka brought in tourists. “There could also be a new strain that originated here without our knowledge because we don’t do adequate gene sequencing.

“To identify new variants, we must sequence the genes of viruses detected through PCR testing. We need many gene sequencing machines because one can’t identify new strains through a PCR test. However, the Ministry of Health has not provided a single gene sequencing machine to any of its labs.”

Kumudesh added that from the President to the Health Minister, everyone had taken a top down approach when it came to vaccinating health sector personnel. “Those who are first exposed to the virus from patients are not administrators but people who come into contact with patients at the bottom of the hierarchy. Right now the junior hospital workers are the most vulnerable but I think that when it comes to vaccination, they will be given the least priority.”

Kumudesh said that no vaccine was 100% effective and it might have adverse effects on some people. Given that there were some risks, people should be properly educated and their consent obtained before they were vaccinated. He urged the people to continue good health practices such as physical distancing, washing hands regularly and wearing masks.