CHIAMAKA Ani was at the Uruan Local Government Secretariat of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Akwa Ibom State in South-South Nigeria when health workers from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) arrived to administer coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine on corps members.

Upon seeing the health workers, Ani, who is a member of NYSC, a programme established by the Federal Government to involve Nigerian graduates in nation-building and the development of Nigeria, became afraid.

“I did not take [the vaccine] because I was confused,” the 23-year-old said.

“I never had anyone explain to me what the vaccine was all about and if there were any side effects after receiving it,” she said, stressing that some of the COVID-19 vaccine misinformation she received on social media discouraged her. “I saw some conspiracy theories on WhatsApp status, Facebook and Instagram about the vaccine.”

COVID-19 is caused by acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was first identified in the city of Wuhan, China, and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2019.

Nigeria confirmed its first case on February 27, 2020. The virus was later declared a pandemic by the WHO on March 11, 2020, as the number of cases and deaths continued to increase globally.

Scientists began to team up with pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines that would reduce the spread of the virus. Vaccines have been identified as the best method of preventing and controlling viral diseases. According to the WHO, there are vaccines developed to protect people from at least 20 diseases.


There was, however, a breakthrough in the development of vaccines, which were distributed to countries, including Nigeria, to vaccinate their population.

But Nigerians, especially those in rural communities, are not willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine due to misinformation, leaving them susceptible to the virus.

More than 170 million people have been infected with the virus globally as at June 4, according to the WHO, of which three million people have been confirmed dead as at June 2.

In Nigeria, about 166, 000 people have been infected with the virus and 2, 000 people have died, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

In March 2021, Nigeria received 3.94 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and aimed at vaccinating 20 per cent of the population.

The Nigerian government said it planned to vaccinate 40 per cent of its total population in 2021, with an additional 30 per cent in 2022 and aimed to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the country’s population.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-misinformation-drives-low-uptake-of-covid-19-vaccine-in-nigeria/

I jus pity Africa