WHAT HEADS OF LEADING HEALTH CARE GROUPS SAY
‘It will provide peace of mind to thousands risking their lives’
Michael B. Davis, chief executive officer at NMC Healthcare,
“Access to the vaccine will provide peace of mind to thousands of frontline workers who have, and who continue to, risk their own health in an effort to protect the lives of their patients and our UAE community,”
“The overall unprecedented staffing challenge of having to put the frontline Covid-19 warriors on to quarantine [when exposure is suspected], and replacing them with the fresh batch, also gets addressed while the safety of their colleagues and family members comes as an added benefit,” Davis said.
Staff at NMC have also donated plasma upon recovering from Covid-19.
‘It shows that UAE Government is committed to heath care workers’
Dr Lalu Chacko, medical director at Burjeel Hospital Abu Dhabi
“This announcement is very significant for frontline health-care workers in the UAE. It is a clear indication of the commitment of the government to ensure that the health care staff is taken care of. “Frontline workers are likely to get an infection even though they are adopting all protective measures. We have seen this across the world. One of the reasons is their proximity to the patients.
“As this is a very promising vaccine according to the extensive analysis [thus far], it is expected to protect health care workers from infection so that they can continue their work actively,” Dr Chacko added.
Burjeel’s parent company, VPS Healthcare, saw 109 health workers, including senior doctors and nurses, participate in the clinical trials as soon as they were launched. Dr Chacko said more staff members had joined the trials later.
“With close to 1,000 doctors and more than 2,500 nurses in the UAE alone, VPS was a forerunner in encouraging its staff to participate in the much-awaited vaccine trials for Covid-19,” he said.
‘Another milestone in the UAE’s battle against the pandemic’
Dr Tarek Dufan, medical director at American
Hospital, Dubai
“The approval of the UAE government to use the Covid-19 vaccine for frontline workers is yet another successful milestone that the UAE has achieved in its battle against the pandemic. “This approval to use the vaccine for frontline workers will go a long way in supporting the fight against Covid-19. It will help stop the contagion and restore normality to the life of the people. Once UAE leads the way and demonstrates the impact of the vaccine, the world will follow in its steps,” he said.
‘This move will lead to UAE society developing herd immunity’
Dr Atul Aundhekar, chief executive officer at Avivo Health Care Group
“With this vaccine, our [UAE] society will eventually be able to develop herd immunity, which is the ultimate win in this battle against Covid-19. “Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of the community (herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of diseases from person to person unlikely.
As a result, the whole community becomes protected. I welcome this move from the government,” he said.