A medical practioner and mining and environmental expert, Dr Sylvester Kotapu is calling on everyone to get vaccinated and protect themselves from COVID-19 that is killing people globally.
Dr Kotapu made the call today when talking to the National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) staff on the importance of vaccination.
He clarified that about half of the population globally have already vaccinated and there is no excuse for Papua New Guineans not to be vaccinated.
“We cannot continue to believe conspiracy theories about the vaccines as people are dying every day of the coronavirus.
“People in developed countries are taking vaccines and we cannot just sit down and expect the Government to warn us every day on the coronavirus.”
Dr Kotapu explained that it is reported that the side effects to COVID-19 vaccines have been mild to moderate and short lasting.
They include: fever, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills, diarrhoea, and pain at the injection site. The chances of any of these side effects following vaccination differ according to the specific COVID-19 vaccine.
He said these are normal effects of vaccines and nothing to worry. Dr Kotapu stressed that vaccines protect our immune system from the coronavirus.
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illness in humans and animals. Seven different types have been found in people, including those responsible for the SARS, MERS and COVID-19 epidemics.
Early reports suggest the new virus is more contagious than the one causing SARS but less likely to cause severe symptoms.
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a family of viruses that cause respiratory and intestinal illnesses in humans and animals.
They usually cause mild colds in people but the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China in 2002–2003 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) on the Arabian Peninsula in 2012 show they can also cause severe disease.
Since December 2019, the world has been battling another Coronavirus. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the virus responsible for the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which was first identified in Wuhan, China, following reports of serious pneumonia.
Currently in PNG, there are about 24,041 COVID-19 reported cases and 266 deaths while 219 million people worldwide and 4.55m deaths.