THE Ministry of Health will soon decide whether the Sinopharm vaccine will be administered to pregnant and lactating women in Trinidad and Tobago.
This was revealed by Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram at the Ministry of Health virtual presser on Wednesday.
A questioned was posed by AZPNews.com Editor-in-Chief Prior Beharry as to why the World Health Organization (WHO)-approved vaccine was not being used on pregnant women but on people over 60 years when both groups have been approved for vaccination by WHO.
Dr Parasram said the health ministry remained cautious.
He said the director women’s health met with the ministry’s technical advisory group (TAG) on Tuesday and provided initial data concerning vaccination for pregnant women.
The CMO said, “He is coming back to us at the end of the week with a position paper basically as to why we should move from the status quo and go towards the pregnant and the lactating mothers.”
He said it will be considered at the TAG group with the data from the director.
Dr Parasram added, “It is a matter of benefit versus risk.
“We have to consider the fact that some of these vaccines have not been used for a long period of time that for the pregnant mother in particular we have to be cautious on the impact of the developing foetus.”
Professor of Immunology, Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Michele Monteil Michele Monteil admitted that Beharry was correct to state in his question that not enough clinical trials were done with the Sinopharm vaccine regarding people over 60 years in the phase three trial.
She said on average the number of people in these trials (phase three) was about 200.
Professor Monteil said the phase one and phase two trials compared the neutralization antibody levels developed in younger ones and the people 60 and over.
She said, “We can say from the kind of immune response that we are seeing form the neutralizing of antibodies… that people over 60 will be protected as well.”
She said a same thing happened in some European countries with AstraZeneca when they had “put up their shackles” and did not use the vaccine in people over 55 years.
The professor added, “They too complained that the over 60s in those trials were relatively small. But then we went into the real world situation. We went to Scotland and the Brits said, ‘You know what we’re going to start immunizing the older people first.’ And they started to immunize several million people in Scotland with AstraZeneca and Pfizer and you what, AstraZeneca performed better.”
She added, “To some extent you are right. Phase three clinical trials give you information but they are not at the end of the day, the be all and end all.
“At the end of the day we have to do with the accumulative evidence from all phases of trials and then the real world experience.”
