By Rathindra Kuruwita

It was ridiculous that some government officials were saying they would take full responsibility for the COVID-19 vaccines, but not even vaccine producers have given such an assurance”, President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science, Ravi Kumudesh told The Island yesterday.

The government couldn’t take the full responsibly because vaccines were not 100% safe and the person who took the jab did so knowing that there were risks, he said.

“This is a new vaccine and a small number of people might experience side-effects. This is normal and it is not a reason for people to lose faith in vaccines.”

On the other hand, the government should have contingency plans to handle a possible situation where a number of hospital or ward staff could experience side effects after being inoculated.

Given the fact that there were some risks people should be properly educated and their consent obtained prior to vaccination.

Kumudesh urged the people to continue good health practices such as physical distancing, washing hands regularly, wearing masks, etc.

“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 at least two years to complete the vaccination process. He added that although the government said that the vaccines would be tested at the Medical Research Institute (MRI), no scientific study took place at the institution in that regard. MRI officials only checked the documents sent by the donor or manufacturer, he said.

“A little-talked-about fact is that the MRI doesn’t have facilities to test vaccines. This is sad because in the 1980s, MRI even produced vaccines,” Kumudesh added.