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Health Ministry slams ‘booster misinformation’ campaign

23 Dec 2021

  • Fear of alleged side effects resulting in booster refusal
BY Buddhika Samaraweera The Ministry of Health has alleged that certain parties are spreading misinformation in an organised manner regarding the booster third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Sri Lanka is currently administering the US-German-made Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine as the booster third dose. It has been reported in recent days that certain individuals refuse to obtain the booster third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine for fear of alleged side effects. However, when contacted by The Morning, Ministry of Health Communications Director and Deputy Director General of Public Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said that various parties are spreading misinformation in an organised manner about the booster Covid-19 dose. “There are plenty of parties that want to sabotage something good and it is those parties that are spreading this misinformation. But what we have to say is that obtaining the booster Covid-19 dose has not been reported to cause serious complications,” he said. Adding that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was being administered in many parts of the world, Dr. Herath said that if it had any side effects, the developed countries would have already been able to detect it. “People interpret these as they see fit, but if this vaccine causes serious complications, the developed countries are not waiting for us to expose it. If it does cause such, they would have already confirmed it and stopped the administration of this vaccine,” he added. As per data available on the website of the Epidemiology Unit, Sri Lanka has, as of yesterday (23), administered a total of 3,006,409 Pfizer-BioNTech doses as the booster third dose. Meanwhile, Dr. Herath, on an earlier occasion, urged the people to obtain the booster Covid-19 vaccine third dose in order to prevent or minimise possible serious complications in the event of an increase of Covid-19-infected patients in the future. “At present, there is no considerable increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, so one might think that it is not essential to obtain a booster third dose, but we very responsibly request all eligible persons to obtain the booster third dose in order to prevent or minimise possible serious complications in the future,” he noted.


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