Few months ago when relieving reports began filtering in about the scientific breakthrough in COVID-19 vaccine, the world felt excitedly different, with an eventual heave that a saviour was finally here. The virus, one of the deadliest to besiege the world, had swept the globe on its feet, taking millions of life along.

Such global health crisis had tested scientific ingenuity, prompting acclaimed medical laboratories to dust up their lab coats to get back to work and find a solution to the ravaging pandemic. They dug very deep, then the breakthrough.

Thus, on December 2, 2020, the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave temporary regulatory approval for the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine. What is worth emphasizing is that no vaccine, since the history of global pandemic has taken this short period of time to produce.

As of March 24, 2021, official global monitoring data showed that over two hundred and eight-seven million COVID‑19 vaccine doses had been administered worldwide. Nigeria had a rather appalling share of two hundred and seventy-seven thousand of the vaccine administered as at the date, representing a paltry zero-point-one per cent of the population of over two hundred million people.

That poor numerical return is majorly a result of phobia, resistance and conspiracy theories that most people have associated the vaccine with. When the World Health Organization, WHO, the global health watchdog and COVAX, the Indian pharmaceutical giant, dropped the Oxford-AstraZeneca in Nigeria some weeks ago, mischief experts saw another sensitive platform to lay their eggs of turmoil.

There were many rumours, with the handiest being that the vaccine was a designed experimental gameplay to kill off African population. Such laughable assumption, along with so many others, have made most people resistant to the vaccine.

What is relieving however is that many global health bodies, including the European Medicines Agency, EMA, had endorsed the vaccine to have ninety-five per cent efficacy after intensive clinical trials. Nigeria’s National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, had also, on arrival, put the vaccine through laboratory checks and endorsed its efficacy as well. One would have thought that after the almost two-year nightmare caused by the deadly virus, the rush for the vaccine would be geometric.

To overturn this downward reception, government must not only talk but must act immediately. Stiff sanctions must be tabled to punish both the architects of the rumours and their disciples. The COVID-19 vaccination card, like the National Identify Number, must serve as a password to most transactional platforms, including job interviews, bank transactions, sim card registration, travelling, examinations and admission into schools.

There should also be a legal back up to these sanctions. While new laws must be made to mandate vaccination, existing ones must be amended to accommodate it too. Law enforcement agencies must also be tasked to monitor compliance. Religious leaders, community heads, school administrators, and organizations also have a job to do to ensure that everyone gets the vaccine and help the safety crusade. Hospitals too must make the vaccine mandatory for all patients.

Thus, the recent announcement by the Anambra State Primary Healthcare Development Agency that those who missed the first dose of the vaccination should to go to Maternal and Child Health Centres in their various Local Government Headquarters to get vaccinated is a remarkable opportunity for those who have not been vaccinated.

Medical experts have said that the only after-jab effect of the vaccine is usually mild fever or headache which would fade away after few hours. The safety and efficacy of the vaccine have not been compromised by any circumstance. Commendation must therefore go to the Nigerian frontline health workers who have remained committed to the safety of the vaccine just as they had remained committed throughout the period of the pandemic.

Just as it is safe to take the yellow fever jab, the COVID-19 vaccine is the safest way to protect yourself and protect other people too. Please, get a jab and remain safe. Like that, together, we can win this global war. Stay safe!

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