Reassurances made over safety of Covid vaccines as Black Country Living Museum delivers jabs
A leading pharmacist in the Black Country has sought to reassure people that Covid vaccines are safe.
Health workers are aiming to administer around 1,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus jabs at the museum each day.
Ruckie Kahlon, chief pharmacist at the Dudley NHS Trust, said she was aware that some people have refused vaccinations.
Ms Kahlon said there were "some issues" around misconceptions about Covid vaccines but said work is ongoing to tackle that issue.
Speaking at the launch of the new hub on Monday, she told the Express & Star: "We have [heard about people refusing the vaccine].
"I think there is lots of issues around understanding the vaccination programme.
"We want to make sure we are reaching out to all communities, that they understand the true facts of the vaccination programme, and also the characteristics.
"Sometimes, people are confused as to whether they want to have the vaccine or not. We want to ensure they understand, and that is through informed consent.
"I think there is a whole range of people [who are refusing the vaccine]. I don't think there is any specific groups that we have come across.
"The vaccine is safe and effective. It has gone through huge amounts of testing.
"Thousands and thousands of people have been tested in clinical trials.
"What we have seen through the vaccine programme being rolled out since early December is that people are tolerating it very well."
The frontline health workers administering the jabs are among the first people to get vaccinated at the Dudley-based hub.
That includes Davinder Manku, a principal pharmacist at Dudley NHS Trust, who was first the person to get vaccinated at the museum.
She usually works at Russells Hall Hospital, just down the road, but has been brought in to ensure the vaccines are delivered safely to the general public.
Her expertise will be most welcomed as she regularly handles lots of sensitive drugs in her job.
She said: "It is a fantastic opportunity and I do feel privileged to be the first person to have the vaccine here.
"I am a principal pharmacist for cancer and comparative services, usually handling a lot of sensitive drugs.
"I have been brought in to make sure the vaccine is handled properly, to make sure it is made up properly and safely, and just to ensure the whole chain is adapted as well.
"It is quite a sensitive vaccine so it is just to make sure everything is safe."
Dudley North MP Marco Longhi also encouraged people to get vaccinated in order to beat the pandemic.
Mr Longhi said: "You have heard others talk about people wanting to avoid having the vaccination but if we are to get out of this horrible position we are in, we must get vaccinated.
"It is a safe vaccine and it is just absolutely key that if we are going to return to what we considered normal life before, this is what we need to do."
The vaccination hub will be up and running at the museum for several months, but it does not yet have a finishing date.
Talk of turning the museum, which has been closed during the pandemic, into a vaccination hub has been going on for some months.
Natasha Eden, chief operating officer at the museum, said: "It was months ago when we started having the conversations and really at that time, as you can imagine, the NHS was trying to work out logistically where the best place might be for a vaccine centre, if a vaccine came online.
"I think there was a lot of preparation happening behind the scenes, along time ago.
"There is a number of months that we have agreed to, at the moment.
"But we will try and best as flexible as we can to host them, for as long as we need to."
Referring to the vaccination sites within the building, she said: "This is space where we normally bring visitors up to and they can walk around the exhibition space.
"But it is also used a lot by our business partners, and to do events, and things like that, which there just aren't a lot of at the moment.
"We would prefer the space to be used by the NHS for this great purpose."
