‘Use intensive campaign to clear COVID-19 vaccine misconceptions’ – Prof. Awandare to govt

The Director of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) at the University of Ghana, Prof. Gordon Akanzuwine Awandare, has suggested to the government of Ghana to adopt an “agressive” campaign plan to wipe out all misconceptions about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Ghana Thursday morning took delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (Covishield) made by the Serum Institute of India, making Ghana the first country in the world to receive the vaccines as part of the COVAX initiative to ensure equitable access for everyone.

Discrediting the misconceptions and conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine, the Parasitologist said the vaccine, that will be administered in phases across the country, went through ” a very rigorous test” by agencies including the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) before they were approved.

“They [the vaccines] have shown the ability to protect people from getting sick when they are exposed to the virus,” Prof. Awandare told Morning Update host Eric Ahianyo on TV XYZ.

He then urged the government to resource the NCCE, Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Information to be able to educate the populace to get Ghanaians to avail themselves to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Although the government has started holding media briefings and stakeholder engagements, he said “I think that we have to have a very intensive information dissemination campaign” in the various communities across the country to help clear all doubts.

“These ideas have to be translated to different languages and broken down into simple languages for everybody to understand,” he added.

He further advised that “We need to embrace this intervention and everybody should take the vaccine when they get the opportunity so that we can begin to slow down the transmission of the virus as soon as possible.”

The people that will benefit from the vaccine plan in the interim are health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary and their related staff.

The others are frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers and other personalities in Greater Accra Metro including Awutu Senya West and Awutu Senya East in the Central Region.

According to a Graphic report, a similar segmented population in the Greater Kumasi Metro and Obuasi municipality in the Ashanti Region will also be covered.