WHO’s Science in 5 on COVID-19 : Which vaccine should I take and what about side effects?

Hello and welcome to Science in 5.

I'm Vismita Gupta-Smith and these
are WHO's conversations in science.

We're going to continue
our conversation on vaccines

with Dr Katherine O'Brien.

Welcome, Kate.

Thank you, I'm really pleased
to be with you again today.

Kate, in countries where people
have a choice of more than one vaccine,

they're wondering
which vaccine to take.

How do experts like you advise them?

Well, Vismita, you know,

the world doesn't have
enough vaccine right now

to immunize everybody
who needs the vaccine.

So, we have a really simple
answer to this question,

which is when you're offered a vaccine,

you should take the vaccine
that you're offered.

We have a number of vaccines
that have been demonstrated

to be safe, efficacious and to be
manufactured with high quality.

And so, any of these vaccines

are ones that are going
to actually protect you.

If you live in a country where there's
more than one vaccine in the program,

you should consider yourself lucky
that you have access to the vaccine.

And when it's your turn
to actually get vaccine,

that's the time when you should get it
and accept what vaccine is offered to you.

If you're a person in a high risk category

and you've been one of the early people
to get vaccine,

that's something that you should do
as quickly as possible

so that you're protected.

And for people who are later
in the queue, like me,

who work in an office

and don't have any substantial
high risk exposures,

it's just our job to wait our turn.

We will get vaccinated

and we should accept the vaccine
that's offered

regardless of what vaccine that is.

So Kate, when anyone goes for vaccination,

they may be wondering about side effects.

How do experts understand
the risks of these vaccines

and how would you explain it,

these side effects that you're seeing?

How would you explain that to the public?

There's a method to look for
common side effects in the clinical trials

and then rare side effects

which are constantly surveyed for

in the routine use of vaccines.

One of the things that I think
people are concerned about

is a lot of information
in the media recently

about blood clots.

And this is a topic that
the WHO is looking at carefully,

regulators in Europe and around the world
are looking at very carefully.

We're in the midst
of collecting information

about these very rare events
that seem to be happening

in the sort of one per million,
10 per million kind of frequency.

I think it's important
for people to remember

that the reason that we're vaccinating

is because we are
in the midst of a pandemic

and we all have risk of COVID infection

and COVID disease that exceeds
the risk of these very rare events.

Nevertheless, what's important is
to assess from a numbers perspective,

from a risk perspective,

the benefit that vaccines confer,

and the very small risk

that these rare events
might be associated with vaccines.

So, both regulators and policymakers
are looking very carefully at these data,

understanding why they're occurring,
where they're occurring,

in whom they're occurring,

and trying to identify whether
there are specific groups of people

who are more at risk
for some of these events,

which it doesn't seem to be,

and balancing that very rare
and low risk against

the benefit of protection
against COVID disease.

People around the world are
working together

to make sure that information
from anywhere in the world

is actually collected together

and informs our understanding
of both risk and benefit.

There are regulators in every country

and there are policymakers
in every country.

And there is a system
where information is shared

up through these regulatory committees
and onto WHO,

where we also have an external
expert group that looks at

safety data that's coming in
from all parts of the world.

So, it is these reviews of the evidence

and as that evidence changes over time,

where these expert committees on safety

make assessments
of the benefit and the risk.

In addition to that, we also
have policymakers who are

equally looking at these data
and providing not only

within countries, but also
at the global level here at WHO,

through the Strategic Advisory
Group of Experts on immunization,

recommendations to countries

for that balance of benefit and risk

and how to minimize any risks
that might otherwise be present.

Thank you, Kate.

That was Science in 5 today.

Until next time then.

Stay safe, stay healthy
and stick with science.