How to bridge gaps in coronavirus response, by don

By  Adekunle Yusuf

As good as some of the ideas and efforts to combat the life-threatening coronavirus illness seem to be,  the Sub-Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr. Joseph Minari, has identified gaps in Nigeria’s response that need to be filled to win the fight against the deadly disease.

According to him, one major area the government and the private sector have neglected and failed to invest in and look critically into is coming up with home-grown solutions, especially in scientific research.

To defeat the pandemic before it inflicts maximum damage as it is doing in some more advanced countries, Minari, who is a senior lecturer in the institution, said there was the need to build local research capacity in various areas.

“Areas to look into include genetic variability of survivors and non-survivors. Researches are needed in the area of diagnosis.

Our scientists can come up with an easier, faster, less expensive, highly sensitive and readily available molecular biology techniques and protocols for diagnosis; design vaccines through local capacity of our researchers and not necessarily waiting cap-in-hand for the developed country to come up with one; investigations into different bioactive compounds through scientific procedures and protocols that meet up with international best practices, which can be designed as drugs for treatments of the disease; provision of scientific information on the transmission of the virus under different environmental conditions, such as the viability of the virus at temperature and humidity peculiar to the country.

“This will, in no small way, reduce the misinformation and fake news flying everyway, especially through the social media. Nigeria is endowed with human resource but has very low human capacity development.

This has definitely weakened quality of research output and not being able to combat epidemics and pandemics such as Lassa fever (which is still ravaging some parts of the country) and COVID-19,” he said.

The don, who is the National Vice-President, Society for Experimental Biology of Nigeria, also listed challenges faced by scientific researchers in Nigeria to include poor financial support, inadequate state-of-the-art scientific equipment for research and unattractive laboratory working conditions and poor awareness of the importance and implementation of scientific research results.

“In conclusion, in order to bridge the missing gap in fighting epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, drastic measures need to be taken to address the issues by massively investing more funds into research, provision of latest laboratory equipment for our research purposes and conducive working conditions, such as adequate power supply.

There must be willingness to use the positive research output and proper dissemination of research results. The fieriest of war will be won on the field of research and on the benches of the laboratories,” Minari added.