Watch how caller ‘dressed down’ Adom-Otchere for discussing ex-gratia over vaccine shortage

Paul Adom-Otchere, the host of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, had a rather unusual and uncomfortable experience of being called out by a caller who believes he was dabbling in trivialities.

The caller who goes by the name Opoku criticized the editorial policy of the show for prioritizing John Mahama’s promise to scrap ex-gratia over the lack of vaccines in the country.

He charged Paul Adom-Otchere to use his platform to prosecute issues that will be of benefit to the citizenry and not pursue political agenda.

“This discussion is not necessary. There is no vaccine in the whole Ghana and look at what you are discussing. Chaley, these things are not important. People are going to die and you are here discussing ex-gratia.

“There is no vaccine in the whole Ghana and you are discussing someone’s promise that he will cancel ex-gratia. Masa, we have to wise up. Ghanaians must stop listening to these things,” he said.

The shortage of vaccines has become topical in the country, compelling Parliament to haul the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu.

The Health Minister in a response to a question by one of the MPs disclosed that vaccines could be available in three weeks.

“We are making all necessary efforts to ensure that we secure adequate stocks of childhood vaccines that are short in the country within the next two to three weeks, all things being equal. It is expected that the vaccines will be supplied in the next two to three weeks, all things being equal,” he said.

“The recent shortages in some childhood vaccines regrettably coincided with the performance of the economy towards the second half of last year and this affected our normal procurement processes, which resulted in delays for vaccines we would have needed in 2023,” he said.

“Despite the delay in our procurement processes, we had stocks which carried us through 2022, resulting in our end-of-year national coverage of 95 per cent for measles, 90 per cent for OPV and 96 per cent for BCG,” Mr Agyeman-Manu added.