The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, has debunked fears and reports that the expected COVID-19 vaccines in the country neither contains microchip nor altar Human Genetic information.
He gave the assurance on Monday in Abuja at the joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
- COVID-19: There may be another lockdown, FG warns
- COVID-19: Unilorin researchers recommend pineapple in management
He urged Nigerians to take the vaccines once it is available in the country, saying “it will not only protect Nigerians, the vaccines would also trigger an immune response that will protect the body against the virus if encountered.
“We encourage all Nigerians to get vaccinated when vaccines become accessible as the benefits of the vaccines far outweighs the potential side effects.
”The chances of spreading the disease is significantly reduced once community members are vaccinated and protected, owing to the fact that the vaccines triggers an immune response that will protect your body against the virus if encountered.
“Please note that taking the vaccine will not only protect you, it will protect your loved ones and community members against the COVID-19 disease as we worked towards developing health immunity.
“There currently seems to be growing vaccines hesitancy and this is largely caused by misinformation leading to mistrust, doubts, suspicions and conspiracy theories. We urged the public to disregard such representation from unverified sources and listen to the medical experts for confirmed information,” Shuaib said.
According to him, it is important that vaccines including COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured under strict compliance with WHO guidelines, thus, COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any harmful substance, microchip and does not alter Human Genetic information.
He said, “Furthermore, any vaccine coming to Nigeria will be tested by NAFDAC and certified safe for human use before it is administered. We will like to assure all Nigerians that this verification exercise will also be applicable to the COVID-19 vaccine and NAFDAC will continue to monitor the efficacy of the vaccine even after its administration to ensure proper documentation of any side effects.
“I want to reiterate that the first set of vaccine is that of Pfizer-Biotech and nRA vaccines and the equipment that are required to store them -that is the ultra-cold chain equipment for storage are available at the National Strategic Cold Store of National Primary Health Care Development Agency.
“I make particular reference to those reports that claimed that we are going to waste the 100,000 doses because we do not have any ultra-cold chain equipment.
Pfizer has also informed us that the COVID-19 vaccine can be stored for five days at plus two to eight degrees outside of ultra-cold chain, which is suitable especially at low level.
This means that the ultra-cold chain storage is only required at the national level and six zonal stores where the vaccines can be stored for longer period, the vaccines then will be transferred to lower levels using dry ices in isolated dry thermals when they are ready to be deployed.”
