COVID-19: Deploying vaccines and getting Nigerians to take jabs

Yesterday, I had my first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine in one of the general hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It was easy; no crowds, no ceremony, no fuss and no pain. I had expected a huge crowd as all persons of a certain age and with brains between their ears know that it is important for their survival that they take it as soon as possible.

I assume all the conspiracy theories against COVID-19 vaccinations have been so discredited that everyone would be eager to have the jab. I asked how many people have had the jab in the FCT and the response is that by end of work on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, only 711 people had it. This is shockingly low. This might be because residents of the capital city did not see their ministers take it on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). Silly me, no Nigerian believes what ministers do or say, so that cannot be the reason.

• Kano Bride-to-be: Why I faked my kidnap
• Bandits storm Zamfara community market, kill one, raze stalls

In Lagos, where their governor took the vaccine on TV, the State Government reported that 12,720 people got vaccinated within the first 48 hours, implying that people there do not want to die from COVID-19.

At the national level, 2.3 million Nigerians registered their preparedness to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine jab within 48 hours of the registration of the easy-to-use e-portal at the beginning of March, signalling some enthusiasm.

A survey of 1,100 Nigerians between October and November 2020 by the Edelman Trust Barometer 2021 found that vaccine hesitancy was a high 59 per cent in Nigeria. Reluctance was 64 per cent globally. Hesitancy, combined with a low trust environment, where only 24 per cent of Nigerians believe in government, and trust overall, is at 49 per cent (Thisday, 18/3/2021). No vaccine in human history has had to contend with massive disinformation and conspiracy theories as COVID-19.

The vaccine, we were told, would be designed (the stories were manufactured before the vaccines), to implant a chip to take over our genes and turn us into robots for Mr Bill Gates, make Africans infertile, kill us through blood clots, ensure we serve the mission of the devil and hurry us to hell. Maybe it is a wonder that some people are ready to take the vaccine.

Having carefully studied all the disinformation and found them to be false, be like me, take it when it is your turn.

We should all strive to benefit from the 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that Nigeria has so far secured from India, courtesy of the Covax Facility, which arrived on March 2, 2021. This is part of an overall 16 million doses planned to be delivered to Nigeria in batches.

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) understood the public’s genuine scepticism about the new vaccine and their resistance and undertook the daunting task of reversing such perceptions many weeks before its arrival in the country. It has been messaging constantly to counter the negative perceptions of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, and that it has no adverse effect on recipients.

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, which has direct responsibility for administering the vaccine, has also been engaged in sensitisation and awareness programmes to correct the negative perception.

At the beginning of the second week of March, most states had received their doses. The plan is to ensure the vaccination of about 70 per cent of the population over the next two years, starting with health and frontline workers and people over 60 years of age.

It is worrying that nearly two weeks after the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, some states are yet to begin vaccination. These include Oyo, Yobe, Cross River and Kogi states. Some governors are also yet to publicly take the vaccine in spite of the fact that at the March 4 Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) meeting, they all resolved to take the vaccine publicly on March 10 with their deputies and to roll it out immediately thereafter in their states.

In keeping with his long-held position, the Kogi governor, Yahaya Bello, had said he would not take the vaccine. In addition, he has been circulating videos disparaging the vaccine and trying to discourage people from taking it. Clearly, he has responsibility for the lives lost to COVID-19  in Kogi State, where he has refused to allow testing from the very beginning.

The timing of the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been rather unfortunate. An alarm has been raised by many countries about its possible dangers. Although largely unsubstantiated, the claims have created panic among those who have taken the vaccine and those hoping to do so. The countries allege that there were observed serious side effects like blood clotting on some of those administered with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Although such side effects are yet to be proven or backed with official pharmacovigilance report, all the same, the alarm raised by some European countries like Denmark and the Netherlands has led to the suspension of the deployment of the vaccine by some countries in Europe.

The issue also sent fears and jitters into the spines of most people of the world, including those in Africa and Nigeria, who have just started the introducing AstraZeneca vaccine to its people.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has responded swiftly to the matter, saying its benefits outweigh any risk. Yesterday, the European Medicines Agency gave its ruling that they had not found a link between the vaccine and blood clots, and that it is safe and effective.

As at March 9, the WHO said over 268 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered since the start of the pandemic, based on data reported to it by national governments. In all these, it said no cases of death had been found to have been caused by COVID-19 vaccines to date. In Nigeria, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, while receiving her vaccination in Abuja last week Thursday, explained that the agency went through the requisite investigations as soon it got the dossier of the vaccine before it was approved to be administered on Nigerians for the treatment of COVID-19.

The drama over the vaccine was provoked by Germany, which suspended its use and pressure mounted on other governments to do the same, lest public opinion punish them if they seemed incautious by comparison, and for the sake of a united European front.

Germany’s decision set off a domino effect of defections from the vaccine, with a cascade of European countries joining the decision to suspend AstraZeneca, dealing a significant blow to Europe’s already shaky inoculation drive despite a lack of clear evidence that the vaccine had caused any harm.

It is now clear that the suspensions were due to political considerations rather than scientific ones. It is the British vaccine and that country needed to be punished. Europe, however, soon discovered it was cutting its nose to spite itself. It has provoked a delay in its already late vaccination schedule and can no longer meet the goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of residents by September.

Let us not be as stupid as the Europeans, let us all take the vaccine to protect ourselves. Our President and Vice President have taken it, so let’s follow their good examples. I have done so.