Merchants making huge foreign exchange on COVID-19 vaccines
By Doosuur Iwambe
Vaccine merchants are making huge foreign exchange on COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria, experts in the nations health sector have revealed.
Speaking during a telephone interview with the Daily Times, a public health expert and former National Publicity Secretary, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, AMSLN Dr Casmir Ifeanyi, said, the beneficiaries are responsible for the setback on the country. Dr Ifeanyi who said that the federal government of paying lip service to research and promotion activities lamented that laboratories in the nation’s tertiary institutions are nothing more than painted selpuchar where no meaningful research can take off.
He said, it was unfortunate that everything about vaccines including water is imported stressing that Nigerian scientists who are capable of doing alot of things have been tamed.
He said, “We, as African scientists are particularly worried that our home government are paying lip service to research and promotion programs. “ Today we have two Nigerian candidates of the COVID-19 vaccine.
One produced by Dr Ladapo of Adeleke unìversity, Osun. That one has eventually advanced to become the second in the African continent to be lifted by the World Health Organisation for African countries.
“Expectedly, a more responsible country, ministry of health and other health agencies would have channel more resources in scaling up and fast tracking the processes of evaluation and trail of the vaccine but that is not the case as the government is paying lip service to it.
“The truth is that huge foreign exchange is made by vaccine merchants in Nigeria and they are holding the nation’s stronghold.
They have held us down in childhood killer vaccination programs. All the things including water are imported. “ It is highly condemnable. We are under tame because as scientists, we know that we can do alot on our own.
The person behind the Pfizer vaccine is a Nigerian trained in a Nigerian university. We can do a lot if the support is there”.
He further warned that those in charge of administering the vaccine should not hide under the cover of distribution to loot and enrich themselves. On his part, pharmacist Osayamen Olaye said, the african continent is not ripe enough to develop the COVID-19 vaccines.
According to him, the facilities and the atmosphere required are not yet in place to embark on such. It could be recalled that Nigeria had last week received 3.92 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.
It is the first shipment for the over 16 million doses allocated to the country through the COVAX Facility, aimed at vaccinating 20% of the population.
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Nigeria is expected to receive an additional 42 million doses of approved vaccines through the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, but details on the timeline of shipments are not yet clear.
According to government officials, the received doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are undergoing final assessment by Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.
While awaiting the conclusion of the review, health workers across the country will receive training on the vaccination exercise.
