Virologists have advised the Federal Government against procurement of COVID-19 vaccine at the moment, saying it is unnecessary to introduce it now to Nigerians. A virologist at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Prof. Rosemary Audu, in an interview with our correspondent, said there would be no need for vaccine if 70% of the population in the country had developed antibodies against the virus.

She said, “We do know that so many people have been infected; we’ll like to know whether we have herd immunity already. Do people have antibodies? Do they have protective immunity already? What percentage of the population has the immunity? If we have up to 70% of the population who have developed antibodies against the virus, then we would say we have herd immunity and may not necessarily need the vaccine. That is something I’m sure within the next few months we should be able to tell.

“NIMR is conducting an epidemiology survey where we are checking citizens for their antibody levels to this virus. I’m sure very soon, we would be able to advise whether the vaccines will be useful for us or not.”

Director, Human and Zoonotic Virology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Prof. Sunday Omilabu, in an interview with our correspondent, said it would be dangerous to introduce COVID-19 vaccine to Nigerians at the moment. He said, “There is something in us that is mitigating virulence of the virus in our body. We may like to call it a kind of immunity that we enjoy through our environment. This is coming to us as an advantage; we have that herd immunity now, if anything comes in now, it may derail what are benefiting from.

“For us, I would suggest they allow people to still use their herd immunity which they are enjoying and is a natural gift. They should concentrate on those few people that have some medical conditions that have made their level of herd immunity very low. The vaccine is dangerous now because we don’t know how it is going to behave in the long run.”

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/its-dangerous-to-introduce-covid-19-vaccine-in-nigeria-now-virologists/

Important perspective.

The experts have voiced their opinions I hope the people concerned will understand. Anyway, l believe my body has antibodies to fight the virus. If epidimiological surveys are to be conducted, that will take a while considering the hard to reach conditions in some areas and poor facilities, let alone poor orientation of populance towards this steps.