Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday, made a case for the local production of vaccines as one of the ways to gain from the opportunities offered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Vice-President made the call at a virtual meeting he had with top government officials and a group of Nigerian scientists who have been working on some of the public health dimensions of the pandemic.

The statement was titled, ‘Osinbajo to FG public health agencies and experts: COVID-19 pandemic opportunity to improve healthcare delivery’.

Akande said the interaction which focused on Nigeria’s response and the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, featured presentations by one of Nigeria’s leading virologists, Prof. Oyewale Tomori; infectious diseases scientist, Prof. Philip Onyebujoh, and the Director, African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Redeemer’s University, Prof. Christian Happi.

On the government side at the interaction were Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; the Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Aliyu Sani; and the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu.

He quoted Osinbajo as saying, “I think that we must be talking now about local vaccine production, improving the training of laboratory scientists, and generally improving our capacity to respond in various ways.

“We must really focus on the opportunities that this period really gives us. What I have noticed is that unless something like this happens, we are very frequently relaxed and just hope for the best.

“I think we are in a position now where we can do a lot. In fact, there is an opportunity to do more in terms of government funding.”

According to the statement, Tomori emphasised the need for authorities across levels to leverage the opportunities created by the COVID-19 pandemic to overhaul the entirety of the country’s health system, noting that “we cannot let this pandemic go without starting the production of vaccines here in Nigeria.”

Happi was also said to have emphasised stressed the need for a closer collaboration between the public and private sectors to transform Nigeria’s health sector not only in providing the necessary infrastructure but in making possible the local manufacture of medical consumables.

On his part, Onyebujoh advocated improved coordination especially in the states in the areas of identification, isolation and clinical management of infected persons, for the country to effectively manage the current rate of transmission.

Addressing some of the concerns raised at the forum, Ehanire said the country was expecting about 10 million doses of the COVID-19 viral vector vaccine.

The statement added, “The minister added that the 10 million doses are aside from the 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine being expected in the country, noting that both types of the vaccine would be received, sometime in March 2020.”

https://healthwise.punchng.com/osinbajo-virologists-seek-local-production-of-vaccine/

Cc:
Seun
Lalasticlala
Mynd44

thorough research is being going on daily to find a lasting solution to the COVID-19 and soon it will be available

The only way to cure our over dependence on imports, our forefathers do cure lot of sickness using herbs with knowledge of medicine we be should producing drugs and others things we need and be less depend on imports

Production of vaccine? I just dey laugh because this is the joke of the century, this same federal government won't fund it, they will say there's no money.

We have good scientists in this country, who are great at what they do. There is the talk of ivermectin being a possible cure for COVID19 and this is by us. So we also can make our vaccines.

Of course we should try to appreciate our own local made product, Osinbajo has said the main thing but is just unfortunate that most Nigerians don't believe in their own stuff what a Shame to them.

We have capable and knowledgeable people in our health sector just that we too much Faith in foreign things than made in Nigeria

We must be proud of our own thing. Our local content is very crucial

We have the power and Knowledgeable people in our health sector, we need to believe on our own things made in Nigeria here

We have all what it takes in this country to produce a vaccine

These questionable Covid-19 vaccines, possibly meant for Africa alone, seem to add more flesh to the VP's expressed support for locally developed vaccines and medicines.
Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that Nigeria's position on this conspiracy theory about the vaccine is quite different from that of some other African countries. We are seeing it and planning from another dimension.

Nigerians are doing wonders all around the world, we should be glad our own Nigerian scientists are working in vaccines for us.

There are Nigerians, in fact many intelligent Nigerians in medical related field who can research and get this vaccine, its just so unfortunate that our system's foundation is so weak that we cant get these people who are in our midst. Joe Biden, the President elect in US already have Three Nigerian born people in his cabinet among is advisory on Covid19, this is a wake up call to our government to set our health system right and of course other sectors for the benefit of Nigeria development and Nigerians