PAHO Director concerned about vaccine hesitancy in the Caribbean

Dr. Carissa Etienne, PAHO Director

Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Carissa Etienne, recently expressed her concern about the high level of vaccine hesitancy in the Caribbean.

“I am truly very concerned about what is happening in the Caribbean. The Caribbean over many years has been the sub-region which attained the highest coverage vaccines and those are routine vaccines,” Dr. Etienne said during a press conference last week. “But what we are seeing now is person’s totally relaxing on the public health measures and a high level of vaccine hesitancy where vaccines, even when they are available, persons are not coming forward.”

The PAHO Director pointed that there is vaccine hesitancy even among healthcare workers and she appeal strongly to people in the Caribbean to be “extremely careful.”

“We have limited bed capacity and limited ICU capacity in our small islands,” she noted. “We also, in some of the smaller islands, we have limited expertise in terms of the number of healthcare workers, the number of respiratory therapists, the number of anesthetists and our health systems will become overwhelmed very quickly.”

Dr. Etienne warns that the sources responsible for triggering this level of vaccine hesitancy are not scientifically proven.

“I don’t know the sources of the information that is triggering this level of vaccine hesitancy. I can tell you that they are not scientifically proven and I want to appeal to you to listen to the sources where you have truthful scientifically based information and evidence,” she said.

The PAHO official insists that the vaccines work, particularly those that receive emergency listing from the World Health Organization (WHO) “because in the cases that are now hospitalized, that is with severe illness, more than 95% of those have not been vaccinated.” but she stressed that to be protected, one must receive the full regimen.

“If it is two doses, you need to receive the full doses. One dose does not protect you,” Dr. Etienne advised adding, “The best vaccine for anyone is the one available to you, so please make use of vaccines that are available.”

She exhorted to the general public, “to get up, wake up from that slumber, wake up from that dream because we know that vaccines are safe.”

However, the PAHO Chief acknowledged that vaccines do have side effects but said those are extremely rare.

“And I want to assure you that we are monitoring the occurrence of those side effects. They are being monitored nationally, regionally and globally,” she said. “Frankly, every medication that you take has side effects but, the important thing is that those side effects are monitored and reported and action is taken to address this.”

Dr. Etienne is appealing to everyone to follow the necessary protocols.

“Please take your vaccine; wear your mask properly; social distance; avoid congregation; wash your hands frequently; observe the respiratory etiquette,” she advised.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

16 Comments

  1. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    August 18, 2021

    Stop the lies; Stop your lie, if you are so concerned, tell me what efforts have you put into it to secure a more reliable vaccine than the one Roosevelt brought to Dominica from India, which we do not know how it was developed, or how safe it is!

    Have you made any effort to procure the Moderna COVID‑19 Vaccine from America, which was developed by a young black woman whom you could be her mother: yes, ole lady Clarissa!

    The Black 34-year-old Kizzmekia Corbett is a key developer behind the Moderna vaccine.

    She tells CNN’s Abby Phillip about her life in science, preparing for the next pandemic and the importance of empathy when it comes to tackling vaccine hesitancy in the Black community.

    Rather than the Indian given unknown vaccine given to Roosevelt which he shared with his good corrupted friend Gaston Brown; why don’t you call, Biden President of the United states; or best person to do that is the is the corrupted Roosevelt

    Con. 

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      August 18, 2021

      Sorry my mistake, I keep naming you Clarissa; I should be talking to and about Dominica quack, quack quack Carissa eh!

      Hahahahahahahahahahahahah!

      Anyway if you are this big great epidemiologist, and your boy Roosevelt is such a known Prime  Minister, get on your telephones and call Biden, president of the United States, and ask him for some of the vaccines used in the United States, let’s here his response.

      I am sure when you say President Biden, I am doctor Carissa; he would asks Carissa who; I never heard of you!
      When the corrupted boy Roosevelt would say Mr. President, I am Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit; the president of the United State will respond: Oh yes, I heard Corruption; one of my FBI agents will be paying you a visit; we have a cell nicely decorated for you eh!
      Hahahahahahahahahahahahah!
      You know Carissa the Dr. Courbet might just have a Dominica connection; please audience doh say  I say, cause, cause, I doh know.

      I only know bout dem Dominica quacks!

  2. cd
    August 16, 2021

    Doc how long does it take to develop a decent vaccine? how long does it take to determine the effective rate of a vaccine? Years, yet these vaccines you all are trying to force on ppl were developed in a few months. Alu not seeing something wrong with that picture? open alu eyes. Doc why don’t you rally the call for ppl to accept Christ, repent and change from their wicked ways? No but here you are pushing your vaccine agenda…a vaccine dat is authorised but not yet approved. Anyone taking the vaccine is a lab rat because these vaccines are still in clinical trials. You all are part of the experiment. In some years u all will see the effectiveness…by dat time it might be too late.

    • Concerned Dominican
      August 17, 2021

      Covid 19 is very similar to the flu in that over many years we have seen many different strains over the years, using this data from outbreaks like sars in china in 2002 it was much easier to speed up the process. You say the vaccine is being tested on us? When have you ever heard the side effects of a vaccine being more deadly than the virus, that making sense to you? You said to ignore that vaccine and pray for Christ, but shame on you for invoking Christ, if he were here and thought this vaccine was dangerous but could save lives he would sacrifice himself for the chance to save his neighbors. Death is not the end, submit yourself to the lord’s mercy.

      John 15:13
      Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      August 19, 2021

      Carissa may not know the answer; so here is some free help; the following; according to Dr. Corbet.

      “To appreciate how quickly the VRC vaccine made it to clinical testing, you have to look back at inoculation history and the stages of modern vaccine development. Often it takes 10 to 15 years to put a vaccine in place. The exploratory and pre-clinical stages alone can last up to 6 years or more. Covid-19 couldn’t wait that long.
      It goes without saying that the 2019 emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has been devastating—this pandemic has caused over 38 million cases worldwide,” Corbett acknowledged, describing the “prototype pathogen approach to pandemic preparedness.”
      Using that method, she said, researchers choose “a prototypic virus from among the 24 viral families that have the potential to infect humans, study in depth the immunogenicity and development of a vaccine for one of the viruses in that family and [thereby] generate enough knowledge that can be applied widely acro:

      • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
        August 19, 2021

        Note:This part is simply for complete accuracy!Using that method, she said, researchers choose “a prototypic virus from among the 24 viral families that have the potential to infect humans, study in depth the immunogenicity and development of a vaccine for one of the viruses in that family and thereby generate enough knowledge that can be applied widely across viruses within that family.
        Since the virusis is caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. 

        Like many other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus.

        This means that, unlike in humans and other mammals, the genetic material for SARS-CoV-2 is encoded in ribonucleic acid (RNA).

        So, she knew she was dealing with an RNA strain: Not going to try and explain it cause dem go say I playing quack eh! 

  3. Roger Burnett
    August 16, 2021

    ”….we know that vaccines are safe.”

    Just as the drug thalidomide was considered safe for pregnant mothers in the 1950’s. I grant that medical science has moved on from since then, but that is no consolation for the tens of thousands left to live their lives with seriously deformed limbs.

    I doubt that Dr. Carissa Etienne’s overly bias plea will sway those who are hesitant.

    • zandoli
      August 17, 2021

      With that logic, I guess we should not trust any mediation.

  4. Anson Pantz
    August 16, 2021

    People misinformed and miseducated by missionaries will make ignorant decisions.

  5. freeworld2020
    August 16, 2021

    The sources of the “vaccine hesitancy” are the governments and medical experts themselves who have proven to be either incompetent or wicked over the past year and a half. The same things we were told not to do (wear mask, shutdown travel etc) in the beginning when we could have contained the infection to China, are now being mandated with the full force of violence of the police state behind it.

    They used to say that the vaccine would prevent the spread of the disease but now it’s that the vaccine will make the disease less severe. You can still catch it and spread it.

    They talk about side effects of the vaccine like it’s some trivial thing while treatments like Hydroxychloroquine were practically banned for a few adverse effects supposedly caused by it. This medication has been approved for years while the vaccines are still under “emergency use” authorization.

    And all this for a virus with a less than 1% infection fatality rate. It’s not “hesitancy”, it’s No,…

    • Frank N Stein
      August 16, 2021

      1% fatality rate? Where did you get that stats from? What is your medical or science degree?

      • freeworld2020
        August 16, 2021

        Google coronavirus death rates DNO won’t allow me to post links. There are wild claims of 5% and above but in all cases it’s with inaccurate data. The few studies that were done accurately including antibody testing to get better statistics on the actual infection rate showed about a 1% infection fatality rate.

        By the way even if we go by the 1% low estimate we should be recording 7 COVID deaths shortly as we are well over 700 active cases (in Dominica). If we go by these wild 5% and above rates expect at least 35 COVID deaths shortly. Time will tell which one is correct

        ADMIN: We do allow links. See our comment policy for guidance on how comments are moderated: https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/policies/#comment-policy

  6. Wakanda Forever
    August 15, 2021

    There is some level of risk with everything in life, but we do them when we understand that the benefits outweigh the risks. That is true for crossing the road, swinging a cutlass, or taking a fishing boat out to sea. The same applies to medicines and vaccines even though, to be honest, in the Caribbean most of us are simply told these things are safe. Maybe it’s not too late to have a frank conversation as to what precisely “safe” and “effective” means. Safe does not mean 0% risk. It simply means that on balance, a particular treatment or prevention is far less risky for your health than going without it. Effective means that in *proper* scientific studies, it did the intended job most of the time (not 100%). Sure the COVID vaccines fail sometimes. Statistics also prove that these same vaccines do decrease hospitalization and death. Two things can be true at the same time. Any viral videos claiming to be ‘saving black people’ by discouraging vaccination are actually doing the opposite.

    • Wakanda Forever
      August 15, 2021

      …opposite. (Team DNO, last sentence sometimes gets chopped off despite character count. Thanks.)

      ADMIN: Please note that if you copy the comment from another source (such as word or an editing program) it can carry over extra characters or spaces which contribute to the limit.

      This is the most common cause of the “chopped off” part of comments. If you believe this does not apply to you then let us know.

      You can also email us at [email protected] for assistance.

  7. God is Lord
    August 15, 2021

    Tell us then, what’s scientifically proven. Or hold your own opinions to yourself. God is not at all in your thoughts, neither is He in the thoughts of those scientists. We are at the threshold of Christ return and perilous times are here. Do you believe that, Ducktor????

  8. EXSLAVE
    August 15, 2021

    ww3 the strom is here
    Jacob trouble
    wake up where will u run

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available