A Professor of Virology and Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, speaks on the Coronavirus pandemic, conspiracies and solutions. MIKE ODIEGWU was there.
A virologist’s take on the Coronavirus pandemic
YOU can see that as rightly described, it is a pandemic, that is, when a disease had spread beyond boundaries and is affecting almost all parts of the world. It has overwhelmed quite a number of nations and the fact that we have not had that type of devastating effect right now does not mean that it cannot come to that level. So, the key thing is containment and containment has to do with trying to find out who has been exposed and those they had been in contact with, putting them under some form of quarantine and also isolating those who had tested positive.
Testing is very key but testing is also a problem. I don’t think any nation has the capacity to test everybody. We are already aware of the test kits. Quite a number of nations have also made the mistake of acquiring test kits that ended up being useless.
Right now in Nigeria, the NCDC is doing very good work, expanding the testing centres and getting requisite equipment. The way forward for Nigeria is to increase these testing areas. The Niger Delta Development Commission, in the beginning, attempted to acquire equipment and other things to help but with the lockdown and some logistics problems and profiteering that is taking place, the NDDC decided instead to support the states in the NDDC region with finance, which had been passed on to the nine states to increase their capacity to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not our place to tell them how to go about that. Every state knows what their difficulties are. They know what facilities they have and the things that they require. The NDDC is still going on with an enlightenment campaign. We even tried as much as possible to extend support to youths and women groups across the nine states even though there were some teething problems as par distribution.
Coronavirus and the 5th generation network
From my little understanding, the 5G is supposed to be like a massive improvement on the 4G network in terms of speed for delivery in which you will be able to even download 1gigabite in one minute. It means a faster communication network.
There is no scientific evidence to link the COVID-19 pandemic and the 5G network. From the molecular/biology point of view, this novel coronavirus is called the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2. It is similar to the previous one called SARS. But from the analysis so far, it is showing that this could be like a combination of two different viruses, which existed in two particular groups of animals; the pangolin (a scaly animal common in China and Africa) and a particular specie of bat.
There is a lot that is still not known about COVID-19, but it is clear that it is not from genetic manipulation and it is not from one laboratory. Even though there are all those conspiracy theories, what is available in the public domain is that it is a combination.
There is a similarity between the COVID-19 and the SARS. But there are also a lot of places that are very different. That is why most of these test kits will not work because they end up detecting previous SARS or ordinary coronavirus infection because those tests look for antibodies instead of antigens. Those test kits do not have the capability to detect the virus.
From what NCC has made available, 5G is not in Nigeria. They tested it for about three months and they concluded. So, whatever mast is here, at worst, it is 4G and nobody has linked 4G with any virus. We know that there is some form of radiation in all those communication things. But there is no evidence that they will cause disease.
Sometimes, we are distracted from the problem. If we are talking about 5G, we will forget that this infection is spreading. We should be worried and be thinking of mass education. Some people do not believe the virus exists and they claim it doesn’t kill black people. But if you go to the United States, in Chicago, more of the deaths had been the black people. It has no ethnic coloration. The population dying in Africa now is increasing gradually. That is the same way it started in the US and other countries. So, we have to be very careful. It is not yet over but we pray it doesn’t get worse. We all need to maintain social distancing. We also need to take precautions. Do a lot of handwashing with soap and water. I will continue to insist on soap and water which is preferred to sanitisers.
There should be a training of the medical staff and motivation of the staff too. Let there be more isolation centres. The government can be proactive in establishing more. Even if we do not have that number of patients, it is better than an explosion of the number of patients.
Recovering from a virus without a cure or vaccine
The truth about most viral infections is that like in a space of time, body security, immunity is ready to overcome. Somebody, whose immunity is not compromised, the person will be sick for quite sometimes but will overcome it. But where the immunity is sort of compromised or somebody has an underlying illness like hypertension, diabetes; most of the people who had died are people who had an underlying illness. The virus actually destroys the lungs. So, people with chronic pulmonary problems are more at risk of progressing badly in this illness.
Stopping NDDC proposed interventions in treatments and acquiring equipment
I don’t think the states are concentrating on prevention, the states are also preparing for the eventuality of having patients. In the long run, having discussed with different dates, we didn’t want to also duplicate efforts that will end up wasting. So, we work in synergy. We really wanted to get ventilators. The ventilators used to cost about N8 to N9million. But in one week, ventilators had gone to almost N30million and most of the people who tell you they have ventilators do not have them in the country.
Ventilators are in short supply even in the United States. They have converted most of the car manufacturing companies into ventilator production companies. The ones we got in contact with, we found out that their delivery dates would be the end of April and sometimes in May. So, why are we tying up money when we could give to the states and the states also have made plans to get these things. So, we wouldn’t want to duplicate efforts. All the different states have isolation units and they had made plans on how to go about the treatment.
The deplorable health sector and health insurance effective
Health insurance is the key to universal health coverage. It is the desire of everybody, but health insurance cannot be voluntary; in all the places where this has worked, it is mandatory. The UK that has the National Health Insurance, as far as you work, you contribute to health insurance.
In Nigeria, it has been very difficult; we have the NHIS (National Health Insurance Scheme), but it has only been able to cover five percent of the population. Different states have health insurance schemes; I am on the board of Bayelsa State Health Insurance Scheme and I know what it took us to start it just because it was made compulsory.
There was a lot of opposition from the civil servants. They were asking why two percent of their salaries should be collected. But by the time the benefits came, quite a number have seen the importance of the scheme.
But the problem is how do we capture the people in rural areas? There are no data bases and some are living in their houses without street names and numbers. It is a problem that needs to be addressed seriously. So, health insurance is very significant and even in the United States, where it is not compulsory, they have a lot of problems with health insurance and it is affecting these coronavirus deaths in the US.
We just pray that there is no explosion of COVID-19 in Nigeria because up till now, we pay for health. We are still operating a capitalist system. Singapore has one of the best health insurance schemes. It is compulsory you pay, and there are different grades. What we are doing in Bayelsa Health Insurance Scheme is basically social insurance in which those who earn more subsidise those who earn a little. I think health insurance is what should be made compulsory to everybody so that health is available to everybody.
NDDC financial support to states in the Niger Delta
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established as an interventionist commission to cater for development and to look after the people in the region. The problem the commission had had over the time is like working without synergy with the different state governments. I can give you examples of primary care centres that the NDDC had built over the years in different states and given to them that are not functional because the state governments were not carried along. It is wrong for people to say that NDDC should not support the states that fall under the region. So, who should the NDDC support? We can’t even go straight. Even if we had bought the equipment, we still need to go and hand them over to the states. Or should we go to the streets to give people ventilators? It is the state government. We have done the proper thing. I read the publication by one group that said it was wrong to donate to the state government. But the position of the group is wrong. They should understand the workings of government.
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