By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

HEAD of the Bahamas Nurses Union Amancha Williams has expressed reservation over the new COVID-19 vaccines, saying she would like to see the drugs tested for a year before it is administered locally.

She also said it should not be mandatory for nurses to take the jab in order to work.

“My advice is to give it a year. Make the rest of the world test it and bring it to your country. We as a country like to run after everything that the Americans do, but we need to take into consideration what are the side effects, how potent is this drug, is it completely approved by the FDA?

“Most of the time, the third world countries do not get the best. So at the end of the day, our government needs to sit down and think about what they are doing, before they make quick decisions,” she said.

Last week, former Minister of Health Dr Duane Sands also urged caution, saying The Bahamas should conduct its own independent investigation into new COVID-19 vaccines.

The US and UK have already started vaccinating their citizens with the new drugs. The Bahamas is not expected to receive a vaccine until next spring or later.

Amid an anti-vaccine movement spread on social media, apprehension over the COVID-19 vaccines has also heightened due to the speed in which researchers have produced the drugs—about a year after the novel coronavirus spread across the globe.

The US Centres for Disease Control has sought to temper fear over the vaccine.

“We understand that some people may be concerned about getting vaccinated now that COVID-19 vaccines are available in the United States,” the CDC’s website states. “While more COVID-19 vaccines are being developed as quickly as possible, routine processes and procedures remain in place to ensure the safety of any vaccine that is authorised or approved for use.

“All COVID-19 vaccines that are in development or being distributed are being carefully evaluated in clinical trials and will be authorised or approved only if they make it substantially less likely you’ll get COVID-19,” the US agency added.

“Based on what we know about vaccines for other diseases and early data from clinical trials, experts believe that getting a COVID-19 vaccine may also help keep you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19.

“Getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, particularly people at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.”

Meanwhile, Nurse Williams admitted yesterday that nurses know that vaccinations are preventative measures, she said taking the vaccine cannot be mandatory to any nurse.

She explained: “Nursing is a preventative measure. We know that vaccines are one of our preventative measures for various diseases. COVID is something that leaves a question mark in your head. We see a lot of controversy coming out of the vaccine alone. So at the end of the day, the government cannot make us take it. It cannot be mandatory.

“This is a free country. We have a democratic voice to say no. This is a choice you have to make. You cannot impose something on somebody if it’s against their religion or their belief. At the end of the day, you need nurses. So if they say no they are not taking the vaccine, what are you going to do? Fire them because they say no they don’t want to take it because it goes against their religious belief or it goes against their health or it has not had the proper study?

“We have to look at this vaccine as a country. What is going to happen? What is going to be the effect on pregnant women? The research and statistics have not been proven as yet. We are walking in a danger zone.

“While a number of women during clinical trials became pregnant during the trial, not enough information has been gathered to judge safety or effectiveness. However, Dr Geeta Krishna Swamy, an obstetrician/gynaecologist at Duke Medical Centre, who helped write the vaccine guidelines for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told USA Today there is nothing to suggest women and their unborn children won’t be safe – while they do face greater risks than others from catching COVID-19. Further trials of the Pfizer vaccine for pregnant women are due early next year.

Nurse Williams said the only way she will feel 100 percent safe taking a new COVID-19 vaccine is if she can inject Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Health Minister Renward Wells “with the same valve that I inject myself with, then I will be know that all of us are on the same page”.