Health official: No scientific evidence natural remedies help in COVID fight

WESTERN BUREAU:

Dr Melody Ennis, director of family services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, says that COVID-19 treatments must be supported by scientific evidence that can be reproduced, which is not an advantage that natural medicine shared with the COVID-19 vaccine that is currently being made available.

“Natural medicines have been around for a long time, and they do have their benefits, but the practice that we are accustomed to is evidence-based, or things that can be replicated. I could not say that these alternate treatments are better, because I do not have that evidence,” Ennis said on Wednesday while addressing a Zoom-enabled meeting on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, hosted by the Glendevon district of churches in the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Sustainability Uncertain

“The scientists continue to look at other therapeutics and other treatment modalities, and if we are following the news, you will see countries like China utilising other arts in controlling the virus, such as natural elements. But the sustainability of those are definitely not known, and so we simply continue to follow the evidence, and the vaccine appears to be the most beneficial treatment for this pandemic,” Ennis added.

She also addressed the question of scepticism regarding the vaccine’s safety, noting that any conclusions which are drawn must be based on statistical information.

“We have to remain grounded and we have to look at the statistics; and if it is not statistically significant, then we operate on the premise of the greater good, and that is what public health is all about. Two persons had an anaphylactic reaction, which might or might not have been as a result of the vaccine, but that is two persons out of five million that have been vaccinated,” said Ennis, referring to reports of two healthcare workers in Alaska who experienced severe reactions after receiving the vaccine.

“So because two persons had an anaphylactic reaction, are we going to allow five million persons or more to continue along the ‘death path’? That is just not adding up, and so we have to be very objective in our utterings, and we have to look at the evidence and weigh the benefits and risks.”

In November, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton disclosed that between 27,000 and 30,000 Jamaicans are being targeted for COVID-19 vaccination.

It is projected that the vaccine will be made available to Jamaica and other low- to middle-income countries in three stages, from mid april to the end of 2021.