COVID-19 vaccination and discordant tunes in govt circles
By Yusuff Moshood
File photo of Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 members and Buhari
Yusuff Moshood
Secretary to the Government of Federation and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, had, in the first week of January, lamented the sheer volume of misinformation on COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria.
Mustapha, while speaking at a media briefing of the PTF, had warned that misinformation about COVID-19 was capable of affecting how Nigerians conduct themselves when the vaccine eventually arrives.
He had urged the media, traditional, religious and community leaders to educate and give Nigerians correct information about COVID-19 vaccines to stop the misinformation.
While the PTF chairman's admonition is correct about the need to tackle COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, perhaps he should be focusing more on tackling this menace from within the government circles.
This is because the official information from government officials in the past weeks on COVID-19 vaccine has been anything but accurate.
Government officials have been giving conflicting information that is creating more confusion about COVID-19 vaccines. This ineptitude should be addressed promptly, as it is capable of deepening the problem of vaccine hesitancy in the country.
The government by now should have a clear strategy for a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Giving out unreliable information daily on the number of vaccines expected, the source of the vaccines, when the vaccines will be delivered as well as strategies for vaccine funding is not a way to demonstrate clear vaccination strategy.
For instance, all through December, the information from the PTF, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency – the agency saddled with the task of the vaccination campaign – was that the government was expecting 100,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines before the end of January.
The agency even released a breakdown of vaccines allocation to states in the country to give the impression that it has a strategy in place for distribution.
However, while January ended without Nigeria getting a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, the Executive Secretary of NPHCDA, Faissal Shuaib, on Monday, announced that the nation was now expecting 16 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine before the end of February, saying that it is a replacement for the Pfizer vaccine.
Shuaib also stated that the nation was expecting 41 million doses of a combination of Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines between March and April 2021.
This was contrary to what the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, had told the Senate on December 22, 2020.
Ehanire, while speaking to the Senate, had said that the Federal Government would need about N400bn to vaccinate 70 percent of Nigeria's population. The Senate leadership subsequently asked Ehanire to bring a budget, while they promised to give it quick consideration.
However, even as of the end of January, the health ministry had not submitted a budget proposal to the National Assembly for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, despite the need for urgency to do so
The lack of clarity on the government's COVID-19 plan was also in evidence when the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnibe Mamora, last week, said that the nation was still working on a budget to establish how much was needed to purchase vaccines for Nigeria.
Mamora claimed that Nigeria had yet to decide on the brand of vaccines to be purchased. He also said that it was after the necessary calculations might have been done that a supplementary budget would be submitted to the National Assembly for swift approval.
That Nigeria was still pussyfooting on decisions about COVID-19 vaccine purchase when South Africa had already taken delivery of its first batch is a poor commentary for the nation.
The fact that this is happening when the nation is already experiencing COVID-19 second wave and recording high figures for new infections and fatalities makes these discordant tunes from government officials unacceptable.
According to the NCDC, the number of confirmed COVID-19-related deaths in Nigeria surged from 1,173 on November 29 to 1,578 on January 31.
The NCDC also disclosed on Monday, February 1, that 21 coronavirus-related deaths occurred within 24 hours. As of the last count on Tuesday, February 2, the national death toll is 1,613.
With the confirmation of widespread community infection, Nigeria should be doing better with strategic planning for obtaining COVID-19 vaccination. Beyond that, government officials should also be on the same page in articulating vaccination campaign strategy.
While the PTF, NCDC and the health ministry have crucial roles to play in tackling the viral pandemic, it would perhaps be better if they all grant the NPHCDA – the agency tasked with driving vaccination campaign – the sole right to give out information about national vaccination strategy.
This is the time for government officials to stop giving out misleading and unreliable information about our COVID-19 vaccine plan. It is clearly unhelpful to our quest to end the viral pandemic.
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