UWI professor warns about possible ‘Trinidad variant’

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One medical expert is concerned that the country’s low COVID-19 vaccination rate could lead to the emergence of a new, local variant of the virus.

Speaking on CNC3’s The Morning Brew yesterday, Professor of Critical Care Medicine at the University of the West Indies’ St Augustine campus, Prof Hariharan Seetharaman, expressed concern over vaccine hesitancy and its impact.

According to him, data has shown that reluctance to the jab fuels more cases which can lead to more mutations. Professor Seetharaman said the presence of several variants in the country and vaccine hesitancy set up the perfect storm for the virus.

“Even in a small country like ours, if we have a major portion of the population unvaccinated, that is going to be the recipe for the development of a new variant. I don’t want it to be called a Trinidad variant, but it is a threat and it is possible.”

Professor Seetharaman also stressed that new variants of the virus also threatened the rate at which countries achieve herd immunity. Data suggests that the longer the delay the more difficult it becomes to protect populations.

“With more and more variants coming in we will be pushing this goal post further, it is realistically impossible to get 90 or even 99 per cent of the general population vaccinated and that is what it means, when we push the goal post of what percentage is needed for achieving herd immunity by these variants that is where we have a problem.”

The UWI Professor said while he supports the administering of booster shots to members of vulnerable groups, more data is needed to determine how necessary it is for people with a clean bill of health. On Wednesday, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) said there was not yet enough evidence to suggest that people should get booster shots.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health that, as at yesterday, Trinidad and Tobago has had no deaths due to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Ministry issued a statement yesterday saying that it was responding to false information in the public domain.

Six more people have died from the virus, taking the total number of deaths to 1,258.

There are 4,838 active cases in T&T.

As at yesterday, the number of people who had been fully vaccinated stood at 381,791.