Coronavirus: Ghana must vaccinate quickly and efficiently – Health Expert

Dr. Yaw Bediako, a Research Fellow at the West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of the Infectious Pathogens has appealed to the government to expedite the administration of vaccines to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.

In the wisdom of Dr Bediako, the country must be swift and efficient in vaccinating the citizens to avert further losses.

According to him, vaccination will help the government to achieve head immunity and break the spread.

“Evidence we have suggests that immunity develops within about 21-days so it’s a window after vaccination where it takes a while for your immune system to round up,” he said on Tuesday.

So for instance, “If immunity lasts for 12 or 18 months, what it means is that after that point, you will no longer be protected.”

“But this is why we [Doctors] are saying we need to vaccinate quickly. If we vaccinate quickly enough, if we hit head immunity before the window period closes, then we will drive down transmission to a point where we break the back of the pandemic, as there will be no more virus around to infect anyone."

The first batch of vaccines is due to land in the country today, February 24, 2021.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister designates for Information and Health respectively will welcome the vaccines in a short ceremony at the Kotoka International Airport.

Speaking on the vaccine arrival, Dr Bediako said it is welcoming and that he is hopeful that more vaccines will arrive soon.

“It’s a good thing because we can vaccinate a large number of people and hopefully by the time we get to the second dose, more vaccines have come to allow us to give people the second dose,” Dr Bediako said.

“If we trickle it out, we are throwing money away because in 18 months we will have to vaccinate everyone all over again because we haven’t achieved anything,” he observed.

Dr Bediako said “If we can vaccinate enough people to drive down transmission, to the point that you break the transmission cycle, then even when the first people we had vaccinated had lost their immunity, there would be no worry “because there is no virus around.”