By Chantalé Fletcher
MINISTER of Health Terrenace Deyalsingh is calling on the United National Congress (UNC) to stop spreading misinformation about the Government’s acquisition of monkeypox vaccines.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health virtual conference on Wednesday, Deyalsingh said, “We are in the market via Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) dealing with Bavarian Nordic, the only producer of the Monkeypox vaccine.”
On August 5, a special meeting of the directing council was approved by T&T’s Health Minister and other Ministers of Health in the region to allow PAHO to proceed with negotiations.
He quoted an article in the Guardian, in which the Director of PAHO Dr Carissa Etienne said, “While supplies of the vaccines are extremely limited, PAHO has engaged in early negotiations with the lone manufacturer.”
Deyalsingh said that those in the Opposition was misleading leading the public to have people believe the vaccines were readily available in a store or shelf for purchase.
He said, “It’s a limited supply and larger countries are hoarding and there is one manufacturer.”
Deyalsingh said from his understanding, the manufacturer preferred to deal with PAHO and maybe not individual countries.
He said there was still no indication on price but they received more information on the vaccines shelflife.
Deyalsingh read from a briefing from PAHO after a meeting on Wednesday morning, stating, “The exact date will be informed once the contract has been signed, however, it is important to be considered that if the vaccine is kept at -50° C degrees centigrade, the approved shelf life is five years. If kept at -20 ° C centigrade, the approved shelflife is three years.”
He added that T&T had the capacity to store the vaccines at both -50 ° C and -20 ° C centigrade.
