Updated | Medical expert rejects myths about potential COVID vaccine

Adrian Frater/News Editor 

WESTERN BUREAU:
Dr Garth Rattray, one of the most respected voices in local medical circles, has rubbished claims that the vaccines being developed to combat COVID-19 will include an intrusive microchip, which could be used to control human behaviour. 
                  
“Vaccines can’t contain trackers or anything that people talk about,” said Rattray.

He was a panellist at a virtual symposium at Sam Sharpe Teachers' College, in Montego Bay, St James dubbed 'Psychosocial Support: A Vital Necessity During COVID-19'.

Rattray, who contracted coronavirus but has since recovered, says vaccines are designed to interact with the immune system and while they may have side-effects, there is nothing nefarious about them. 

“Vaccines are used to alert your immune system to something so that it can fight it off,” said Rattray. 

According to the medical doctor, like the flu vaccine, a COVID-19 vaccine might have to be taken once each year as the virus, which already has several strains, is likely to mutate annually. 

At the same time, he said the wearing of masks is the most effective way to combat the virus. 

“People have to adhere but they’re just not doing it," said Rattray, who the feeling of suffocation, which some people complain about when wearing masks was purely psychological.

"All children over the age of two years must wear masks," he said.

*NOTE: A previous version of this story had inadvertently referred to a Dr Carl Rattray. It should have been Dr Garth Rattray.

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