Avoiding Omega

Abstract

The pandemic goes on – smouldering along in developed countries, Malta included, whilst still disseminating widely in other countries. Those countries that have achieved a semblance of control have done so by means of a combination of measures including social distancing, barriers to droplet spread and vaccination. The latter is, undoubtedly, the key measure whereby control of this pandemic can be achieved.1 Nevertheless, a sizeable minority including otherwise well-informed individuals (doctors included!), continue to scaremonger against vaccination. In a nutshell, COVID 19 vaccines do have adverse effects but, in the vast majority of cases these are minor and no different from those associated with a host of other routine and widely accepted vaccines. More serious adverse events are rare to extremely rare, and no more common or slightly increased compared with naturally occurring events (such as myocarditis, reported in 4.4-12.6 cases/million with the first and second Moderna vaccines, respectively, and resulting in 1 death in every 5 million persons 2; and thrombotic events observed in 417 cases in 24 million doses with the AstraZeneca vaccine, with 72 deaths 3). Although no country can claim the accolade ‘COVID-free’, those that have achieved a respectable level of control have been able to relax restrictive lock-down measures and return to a semblance of ‘normality’. In this regard, Malta has done well, primarily as lessons from earlier over-zealous premature ‘relaxation’ have been heeded, combined with an aggressive programme of vaccination. Credit is due to all those involved in policy decision, implementation and adherence. Unfortunately, even if Malta’s vaccine coverage continues to improve, this will still not be sufficient to keep Malta ‘off the hook’.