New Telegraph

Covid-19 blame vaccine hesitancy for expiration –Prof Babalola

The President, Guild of Medical Directors, Prof. Olufemi Babalola, has descrided the issue of vaccine expiration something the Federal Government will not be proud to talk about hence they kept quiet about it. Babalola was reacting to the news on December 8, by Reuters that up to one million COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used. The report had quoted two sources as saying what happened in Nigeria remains one of the biggest single losses of doses that shows the difficulty African nations have getting shots in arms.

However, Babalola has said that the fault is not as much with the Federal Government as with the vaccine skeptical citizenry. For some reason, Nigerians, he said, do not want the vaccine, because they have been subject to disinformation. Hence uptake was slower than anticipated.

He said: “As they say, you can force a horse to the stream, but you can’t force it to drink. “Government has a Herculean task ahead to persuade Nigerians to accept the vaccine. They need to start with opinion leaders such as mega church general overseers, chief imams, and traditional rulers. And then we can make some progress.” Also reacting to fears in some quarters that some of the expired doses of the vaccine might have been given out to Nigerians, Babalola said he doubted that that ever happened. “I doubt that ever occurred, but if it did, that would be horrific. “Recall that the problem in Nigeria is not a shortage of vaccines, but rather a shortage of willing takers. “Nigeria has been promised 100 million doses of the vaccine free of charge, which will be released as it is used.

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