President of the Cyprus Turkish Medical Association (KTTB) Özlem Gürkut has emphasized that people who wish to be vaccinated against the coronavirus should be informed about it.
Dr Gürkut told the TAK News Agency that her medical associations had conveyed to Ministry of Health officials the importance of informing the public about the vaccines to be used in the country.
She said:
“Which vaccines will be available, how they will be stored, transported, who should be given priority for the vaccines, calculating how many vaccines we need, where, who will give the vaccines, and how? We emphasized that whichever vaccine arrives, it should be given after the recipients are informed about the vaccine”.
Dr Gürkut also stated that KTTB will only approve the use of vaccines approved by organisations such as the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Regarding the Chinese produced Sinovac vaccine, which has not yet received approval,she said the following:
“If the Chinese vaccine Sinovac is to be administered in our country without the completion of Phase 3 study results and approval, we have stated that the people to be vaccinated should be informed that it is a ‘working vaccine’ and it should be done accordingly, that is, ‘informed consent’ should be obtained. The Phase 3 study results on the Sinovac vaccine have not been completed and published as of today, and the vaccine has not yet been approved. If the study result is found safe and approved, it will be possible for us to use this vaccine more safely”.
Gürkut also expressed the view that it would be necessary and beneficial for health teams to share scientific information in simple and understandable terms about the vaccines in cooperation with the media, educational institutions and non-governmental organisations in order to eliminate the concerns caused by the lack of knowledge about vaccines in the society.
Kibris Postasi
