Opinion | Now is the time to talk about vaccines, but Covid-19 leaves polarising legacy

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While Covid-19 no longer dominates the news, lawsuits related to coronavirus vaccine injuries have made headlines in recent months.

The most recent is a lawsuit filed by a vaccine trial patient against drug maker AstraZeneca claiming she was disabled by the vaccine during a trial, and that the company has failed to fulfil its contractual obligations to pay her medical bills, The Telegraph reported on Monday.

Two weeks ago, a British man who suffered from a brain injury days after vaccination sued AstraZeneca, alleging the company downplayed the risks and exaggerated its effectiveness, Sky News reported.

Other drug makers such as BioNTech and Serum Institute have also faced lawsuits in Germany and India respectively.

In the US, drug makers were given immunity from lawsuits under agreements with the government, which in turn set up a compensation scheme to pay people found to have been injured by a covered vaccine. Australia has a similar programme.

In Britain and the European Union, drug makers have been given partial immunity.

In the UK, vaccines supplied under emergency authorisation are exempted from civil liability but individuals may still sue the producers under the Consumer Protection Act.

In Germany, drug makers are only liable for damages if medical science shows their products cause disproportionate harm relative to their benefits or if medicine labels contain wrong information.

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In the 1970s and 80s, pharmaceutical companies had to pay millions to plaintiffs in vaccine injury lawsuits and were locked in long and costly litigation.

Some drug makers were put off by the complexity and the risks of potential lawsuits, and governments had to give them exemptions to encourage them to make costly investments in the research and development of new vaccines.

However, not all vaccine lawsuits are legitimate, nor is every health condition that emerges soon after a jab caused by the vaccination.

For example, a person might have a heart problem even before receiving the vaccine. Likewise, the chance of a vaccinated person having a stroke may be the same as that of the non-vaccinated population.

However, the anti-vaccine campaigns that have gained influence in recent years have made rational discussions about the benefits and risks of jabs difficult.

Medical practitioners and government officials are worried that any public discussion about vaccine risks or injuries could cause vaccine hesitancy or feed conspiracy theories espoused by anti-vaxxers.

It has resulted in a dichotomy of narratives.

One narrative puts the number of vaccinations above every other protective measure and advocates as many vaccinations as possible, while dismissing injuries as very rare cases exaggerated or fabricated by anti-vaxxers.

Another narrative that is gaining ground reflects strong anti-vaccine views. Most of its assertions are absurd, such as claims that vaccines were a bioweapon.

This dichotomy is impeding healthy discussions and research into the effectiveness, efficacy and the risks of Covid-19 vaccines.

A medical worker injects a volunteer as part of a vaccine clinical trial to battle the spread of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China in April 2020. Photo: TPG via ZUMA Press/dpa

An article published in The New York Times on May 4 said many people who believed they were harmed by vaccines were dismissed as anti-vaxxers and their voices not heard.

Some of the interviewees were scientists or medical professionals, including Dr Gregory Poland, editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine, who said he suffered from tinnitus after the first shot. But he said his requests asking scientists to look into the phenomenon went nowhere.

It is extremely difficult to determine whether an illness or death was caused by vaccines, because these effects could be the result of an underlying disease or caused by Covid-19 itself.

That is why a lot of intensive research is required to investigate claims from both sides of the vaccine divide. Ignoring or dismissing discussions about the potential side effects of vaccines will only cultivate more hesitancy around the topic in the future.

The best time for candid discussions and intensive research is now, before another pandemic hits.

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