Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 06, 2021 (SKNIS): Being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 comes with several benefits and protects citizens and residents from further health complications, said Dr. Cuthbert Sebastian Jr., Emergency Room Physician at the Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital while appearing on “Working for You” on May 5, 2021.
“The benefits of being fully vaccinated are obviously the health benefits, which are you do not become severely ill from the COVID-19 infection, you don’t get hospitalized where we would have to put you on a ventilator and being on a ventilator comes with its own risk and own problems, and usually people who go on ventilators don’t tend to come off… and finally you don’t die,” said Dr. Sebastian Jr.
Dr. Sebastian Jr. advocated for members of the public to make use of the availability and accessibility of the current vaccination drive taking place across the Federation to achieve herd immunity, stating that persons are not fully vaccinated until they have received both doses of the vaccine. In St. Kitts and Nevis, as of May 5, 2021,13,283 persons have already had at least one dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca, and the roll-out of the second dose has already started.
Dr. Sebastian Jr. also indicated that a person with underlying conditions must be extremely cautious in regard to taking the vaccine and make sure that those conditions are well controlled with a registered physician.
“Educate yourself in whatever way you can, try to source the right information, double-check your information with reliable sources, and then you can make a decision based on that,” said Dr. Sebastian Jr.
There is currently a global shortage of COVID-19 vaccines. Luckily, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis managed to secure enough doses for the Federation to utilize. The goal of the vaccination drive is to have at least 70 percent of the Federation’s population vaccinated to reach the herd immunity threshold.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 06, 2021 (SKNIS): Today’s safe and effective vaccines are the way out of the COVID-19 Pandemic, yet the extent of misinformation and disinformation around them has been significant. As such, Dr. Cuthbert Sebastian Jr., Emergency Room Physician at the Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital, encouraged the general public to always use reliable sources.
Regarding information on COVID-19, Dr. Sebastian Jr. advised people to visit the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) websites for reliable and up-to-date information.
“I usually tell them to go to the World Health Organization as a good source of information, reason being is, it is a non-biased source of information, it is not for any one country, it is an organization just focused on health and I think that is the most important topic of the day especially in the times of the pandemic and that is where I advise people to go,” said Dr. Sebastian Jr. “There is also CARPHA. They are going to give you some good information as well. These would be the two websites I would recommend individuals to go and look for themselves and see what is going on.”
Additionally, persons are also encouraged to visit the local Ministry of Health Facebook page for reliable and credible information. Dr. Sebastian Jr. does not encourage anyone to visit science-oriented websites “because that type of information may be misinterpreted or misunderstood if you are not trained to understand it.”
He noted that although he gathers information from reliable sources, he always backchecks to make sure the information he is receiving is credible.
“Regarding all of the information people are receiving, whether it is disinformation or misinformation, or the right information, and I know there is a lot of information coming your way, even I feel overwhelmed by the amount of information coming my way I always try to align myself with sources that I know are reliable and even if I think this source is reliable I always backcheck with another reliable source that I know. This is a way that I can weed out misinformation and disinformation,” said Dr. Sebastian Jr.
Dr. Sebastian Jr. referred to a news headline from CNN with a statement from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, when he checked CDC’s website there was no information regarding what was seen on CNN.
“So, you have to be careful even with the reputable sources that you may come across that there may be some disinformation or misinformation on them. It is always good to backcheck,” he said. “And you have to remember that social media, for example, anyone can post anything on social media, and they can do a lot of damage with that.”
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 06, 2021 (SKNIS): Scientists are now looking at the possible link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine and blood clots. However, contracting COVID-19 poses a higher risk of getting blood clots than getting them from the vaccine, says Dr. Cuthbert Sebastian Jr., Emergency Room Physician at the Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital.
Dr. Sebastian was at the time speaking on the May 05th edition of “Working for You.” He noted that scientists have not found the link and there are a few theories of what could have caused the blood clots, but that the evidence is not concrete.
“There are other reasons these individuals may have gotten blood clots and one of the theories is that they have possibly been exposed to COVID-19 before because COVID-19 actually increases your risk for blood clots at a much higher rate than they are proposing that these vaccines do,” he said. “So you are more likely to get a blood clot from COVID-19 infection than you would have from getting any vaccine.”
The physician stated that the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 05, 2021 (SKNIS): Dr. Cuthbert Sebastian Jr., Emergency Room Physician at the Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital, said that vaccines are safe and important and are used to build the natural immunity of a person’s body against disease infection.
Dr. Sebastian Jr. was at the time discussing the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of vaccination during the May 05 edition of ‘Working for You’.
“A vaccine is a method that we use to boost our natural defenses against a specific disease. What they do is take either a virus, bacteria or pathogen and take either a part of it or the whole thing and they administer it into the body so your body sees it and then it can build up a natural defense against it,” said Dr Sebastian Jr. “But what they do is they weaken it or kill it or it’s a harmless part of it where it doesn’t cause an infection. So that is what a vaccine does. It is seen as a preventative measure to get the actual disease.”
Dr. Sebastian Jr. addressed the issue of catching a disease even after being vaccinated. He noted that vaccines can help reduce the severity of a disease which means that even if a vaccinated person catches an infectious illness, he or she is less likely to suffer serious complications.
“No vaccine is proven to be 100 percent effective—none in existence—not even these COVID-19 vaccines or not the ones that we have seen throughout the past,” he said. “Using some examples from the past, we no longer have to deal with Polio anymore where that used to be rampaging through the world where we had hospitals dedicated just for this disease at one point in time,” Dr Sebastian Jr. added.
Dr. Sebastian Jr. reiterated that vaccines are indeed important and safe, adding that they work with the immune system to prepare one’s body to fight any virus once exposed.
“So, the vaccines do work, they just work over a time period. It needs enough people to take it for it to actually be effective so we can actually see a change in the world.”