Akufo-Addo’s coronavirus vaccine shot to be televised – Okoe Boye

As part of efforts to demystify the fears and conspiracy theories surrounding the Coronavirus vaccines, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be the first recipient of the recently acquired doses.

Going a step further to increase the public’s trust and to encourage Ghanaians to take the jab of the COVAX vaccine, the president’s vaccine shot will be televised.

Former Deputy Health Minister, Bernard Okoe-Boye made this revelation Saturday morning on Citi TV’s The Big Issue.

According to the former Member of Parliament of Ledzokuku, this has become necessary to ensure that Ghanaians get to know that the AstraZeneca vaccines recently received by the country is safe to use.

He further intimated that the pack from which the president’s dose will be taken on live television to prevent Ghanaians from thinking that the first gentleman of the land will be injected with a different vaccine while the rest of the populace takes another.

“Because a lot of the research we did on the vaccine acceptance and resistance …there are a lot of trust issues. There are a lot of people who feel that… this vaccine was developed by “the white man” and that he wants to exterminate us… as part of the rollout we need to have influential, key players, decision-makers to get vaccinated so that it will send a signal…” he explained.

Ghana received its first batch of Coronavirus vaccines through a UN-backed global vaccine-sharing scheme as part of efforts to enable fair access to the jabs by low and middle-income countries.

The consignment, which arrived at the Kotoka International Airport, February 24, 2021, consisted of 600,000 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield).

As part of the rollout plans, they are to be administered first to frontline health workers, and high-risk persons and people over 60 years, to slow the progression of the disease.

The vaccines were produced by the Serum Institute of India.