And while the Ministry continues to fight against emerging variants and rising COVID numbers, the number of anti vaxxers is also growing.
They've organized themselves into a group and held a press conference yesterday where they shared misinformation about the virus - which they don't believe exists - and the vaccine - which they think is an experimental shot.
Today, we asked Dr Beer about the dangers of spreading such information. She reminded us about the severity of this virus and how it has evolved in the year and a half that we've known about it. She also told us how the vaccine can easily be the difference between having no symptoms and ending up on a ventilator in the COVID unit.
Dr. Natalia Beer, technical Advisor, Maternal and Child Health
"Remember we started out with covid19 being considered one more respiratory infection. Today we know that the virus is formed in many organs in the body and that now is telling is that covid19 is indeed a systemic disease and we know of cases of person who are declared recovered by laboratory or recovered clinically and they are still having consequences of the infection caused by the virus. So the different organs where the virus has been found is in the nose, in the lungs, in the intestines, in the heart, in the liver and the eyes - we can find it also affecting the bladder, kidneys, pancreas, the placenta, prostate, and even the brain, so having the covid19 vaccines available now, why expose someone to get infected with the virus knowing that the virus can affect all of these different organs. Covid19 is now considered a vaccine preventable disease and covid19 vaccines are proven to reduce the number of persons that have severe illness, the number of persons requiring hospitalizations and the number of persons dying from covid19."
She also gave an example in the form of polio, which had ravaged the world. Vaccines were developed, and now most countries don't have any cases. She also spoke on the privilege we have now that this vaccine is readily available, and free, since those who had died during the previous wave didn't have that option.
Dr. Natalia Beer, technical Advisor, Maternal and Child Health
"Today we are in the year 2021. The last case of polio in Belize was diagnose in 1981. So we are talking about 40 years free of polio. And we continue providing the vaccine against polio, because there were 2 countries that are still having active cases of polio which is Afghanistan and Pakistan and the entire continent of Africa is not certified free of polio yet, so because of the presence of polio in that part of the world well then worldwide we continue to provide the vaccination against polio. So vaccines work, covid19 vaccines because of the pandemic is a vaccine that is the main objective is to save lives. A few may get infected after receiving the vaccine, but the infection will be asymptomatic without no signs and symptoms or with mild signs and symptoms and still capable of transmitting the disease. That is why we highly encourage the population, the communities to take the vaccine, get vaccinated and continue with the preventive measures. The Ministry of Health with the help of the other governmental entities is going the extra mile trying to provide the information to the communities, explaining to them what is covid19, how the vaccines are preventing the infection and can reduce the hospitalizations and the deaths due to covid19 along with the other preventive measures."
"Last night I receive a call from a friend who was sharing that she had covid19, she is on day 11, since her diagnosis taking treatment and she was crying because all she had was sore throat and fever, nothing else. And her sister died of covid19, but she died in a moment when there were no vaccines."
