Dr Mukhtar Muhammad is the National Incident Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. In this interview, he speaks on the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination exercise, what Nigerians must do before taking the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, the side effects, and other vaccines expected in the country.
What is the situation with the rollout of AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria?
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We are really grateful that we now have the vaccine on ground. You are aware when the vaccine arrived, we took it very seriously. Samples were taken by the National Agency for Food Drugs and Administration Control (NAFDAC) to crosscheck the different patches on the vaccine for safety.
And within 48 hours, NAFDAC came back with a confirmation to tell us that the vaccines actually contain the chemicals or the ingredients that were written on the document and that the vaccines are safe for use in Nigeria.
So, immediately after that, we handed over the vaccines to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), which is responsible for the vaccination drive in the country.
So, NPHCDA has distributed the vaccines to the states. They have assessed the storage capacity of the states and their readiness; the states that are ready have already received their vaccines.
As you are aware, we only received a little short of four million doses of the vaccine. And our priority, for now, is strategic leadership in the country and frontline health care workers.
Vaccination activities have started in most states. And even the states that are not ready, we are working with them to ensure that they satisfy all the criteria for getting the vaccines so that they can also start their rollout.
With the rollout, what are you doing to reassure the citizens about the efficacy of the vaccines and also address hesitancy given comments by some influential people, like Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State?
I think in Nigeria we are very lucky, in the sense that Mr President has provided the right leadership. He has also provided the right example for everyone to emulate.
You recall that last Saturday, Mr President and the Vice President were vaccinated against COVID-19.
Shortly after that, Mr President gave a speech. He asked every political leader in the country to take the vaccine and also encourage people to take it.
So, I think that is a clarion call by Mr President and anybody who is a political leader in the country now should actually try to emulate this example that Mr President has set.
It is not only an example, but I think it is an order that Mr President gave. So, people who are loyal to the President will certainly come first in obeying his instruction.
We are working with religious leaders and traditional leaders. We want them to also start launching campaigns in their communities to encourage people to come out and take this vaccination.
What is the penalty for those that refuse to take the vaccine?
We won’t say that there is a penalty. We will not force anyone to take the vaccine. What we will do is educate and enlighten people.
But people who are entrusted with the responsibility have to have the moral high ground to find what is good for their people and ensure that their people benefit from it.
So, while we will not punish anyone individually, I think it is a great moral burden for anyone entrusted with leadership in this country to come out openly and defiantly against what Mr President has asked the leadership of the country to do.
Are you satisfied with the reception you are getting since the rollout of the vaccine?
It’s a little bit too early. But from what we are hearing, for now, things are working very smoothly. The doses that have been assigned to some of the states have all arrived.
We have seen that some of the state governors have publicly, just like Mr President did, taken their vaccination.
We are also aware that health care workers have been given priority. They have all been registered in the states. And gradually, you know, the numbers are coming up.
We are going to mount our monitoring system here to be able to see the numbers for ourselves, what is coming out of the state? The number of vaccines each state received? How many people have been vaccinated? What categories of people have been vaccinated, among others?
So, this is something that we want to start monitoring as soon as possible on a daily basis.
What kind of information do Nigerians need before taking the vaccines?
This vaccine is for people that are above the age of 18 and it’s free of charge.
Nobody is going to pay for anything. People are required if they can to pre-register online, go to the NPHCDA website, and pre-register your name so that you don’t have to follow any very long queue.
You will know exactly the date and the place where you will take your vaccine. If you are not able to register online, we have what is called assistant registration.
So, in all the Primary Health Care Clinics (PHCs) that have been selected to deliver the vaccine, you can go there and register.
It’s just the normal way people go and register for clinic. So, you can register for the vaccine and wait for your time to take it. If you are not able to do that, at a later time, we are going to have a house-to-house campaign where people will be mobilised and they will be registered and you will take your vaccine.
Now, what is different with this vaccine is that you have to get two doses. If you take the first dose, you have to keep your card. When it is due for your second dose, you take the second dose and it is marked for you and that is when you will say you have taken the complete dose of the vaccine.
In the meantime, before you take the vaccine, people should continue to observe our non-pharmaceutical interventions that are in place. That is to continue to wear face masks and to continue to comply with social distancing and also to continue to wash their hands because that is the best way to protect yourself from getting the infection.
Now, if you have taken your first dose, yes, it’s likely that you would have developed some level of immunity, or some protection, but still, it is not a guarantee that you will not get the infection.
So, we still advise people to continue to comply with these guidelines; that is to ensure that they have their face mask all the time.
By the time we have reached about 70 or 80 per cent of Nigerians, then we will now begin to review the situation.
And most likely, by that time, Nigerians would have reached what is called herd immunity, which means that the majority of the people are now protected against the disease, and it is only after that that we will consider whether we should remove some of these health protection regulations in place.
Has there been any reported side effects after taking the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine from any part of the country?
I will tell you because I have taken the vaccine myself. Really, the side effects are not different from the normal side effects that you have with other vaccines such as yellow fever or Hepatitis B.
The most important one is maybe a pain in the injection site. There will be pain and people should know that. For about 24 or 48 hours, you will have that.
Secondly, some people may develop some level of fever. You will feel unwell. You will feel a little sick. You may not know what is wrong with you. You can have a headache. All these are mild symptoms that are associated normally when you have a foreign body entering into somebody’s body.
In a few people, they can go ahead and develop mild symptoms of the disease. So, the mild symptoms are: somebody can have a cold, that is catarrh, you can have watery nose, you may be sneezing, or you may even have some cough.
But this is only in a few per cent of cases. And that is explainable because your body is training itself to fight the disease. And while it is doing that training, it will now give you those symptoms that I expressed. So, those are the things that Nigerians should expect, no more than that.
But anybody that has any sign or symptom is free to call the NCDC hotline, 6232, to express what they are feeling. Somebody will attend to you and give you the correct reference.
Apart from the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, which other ones are you expecting?
Discussions are still going on. The next batch of the vaccine is still likely going to be Oxford AstraZeneca. We are in discussion with Johnson & Johnson.
So, we are expecting that to come very soon. I’m aware that the Federal Ministry of Health is also having a bilateral discussion with the Russian government to be able to bring those additional vaccines. So, for now, these are the three vaccines.
We are also going to get some free doses, I think of the Pfizer vaccine. But considering our cold storage we know, Pfizer and the Moderna are not really on our high priority because we may not be able to manage their logistics very well.
