From Pwanagba Agabus, Jos
A Virologist, Dr. Ishaku Akyala, has advised the Federal Government to suspend its plan to purchase Covid-19 vaccines.
He also warned that using the vaccine on African population without clinical test is dangerous because no one knows how it was going to behave in the long run.
Akyala, a lecturer with the Nasarawa State University, keffi, gave the advice in an interview with journalists in Jos, the Plateau State Capital.
According to him, there was need for more epidemiological national survey across all the states of the federation before the vaccines could be administered.
“Attention should focus on doing a national sero-prevalance studies in all the states of the federation and focus on few individuals with comorbidities”, he advised.
Akyala also expressed deep concern over the danger the vaccine could pose to Nigerians, adding that a deeper research on its workability must be done before being administered to the citizenry.
“The vaccine is dangerous now because we don’t know how it is going to behave in the long run in our African population”, he warned.
“There is need for us to carry out an independent evaluation and clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine before it is administered on Nigerians,” he further advised.
