Shut up! – Prof Dodoo tells MPs, others

Chairman of the Global Vaccine Safety Initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Professor Alex Dodoo has advised those spreading wrong reports on the Ebola vaccine trial to ask for further information on the exercise or shut up.

According to him, those peddling those reports are undermining the country’s national security interests.

Speaking on TV3 on Thursday, June 11, Prof Dodoo said the development is worrying after all the precautionary measures taken in the introduction of new vaccines have been taken by the University of Allied and Health Sciences before hitting the ground with the exercise.

“Anybody, be they professors or lay people or journalists peddling wrong stories are undermining our national security interests,” he said on Midday Live.

“They are undermining the competitiveness of Ghana to produce vaccines to protect its people because the skills we use to produce vaccines for Ebola is what we have used to produce vaccines for any other disease.”

The trial of the vaccine in Hohoe in the Volta Region has engendered public outcry with the Minister of Health calling for the immediate suspension of the exercise.

Parliament on Wednesday summoned the Health Minister after backing him in his directive.

One of the reasons given for the suspension is that the country has not recorded any case of the deadly virus; therefore, may not need a vaccine at this time.

“Trust me, if we are going to buy a fire extinguisher when there is fire is too late,” the professor of Clinical Pharmacology said.

He recounted how Ghanaians were begging for vaccines to cure H1N1 virus after its outbreak.

“Where should we test it if Ghanaians are rejecting it?” he asked.

Ghana is among five countries selected for the trial of the vaccine. GH¢200 plus a mobile phone is said to be given to volunteers who subject themselves for the trial.