‘Why Lagos is aggressive with vaccination’

By Adeola Ogunlade

Lagos Health Commissioner, Professor Akin Abayomi, has said the State is aggressive with vaccination because it is the epiccentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

Abayomi spoke at the COVID-19 vaccine summit organised by Global Emerging Pathogen Treatment (GET) Consortium at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Conference, Alausa, Lagos.

The event tagged COVID-19 Vaccine’s Administration in Nigeria: Strategies to manage perception and overcome hesitancy attracted medical experts, civil society groups and government representatives.

He said Lagos carries the burden of the virus declaring “we survived two waves, some countries are not as lucky as they have gone through the 3rd and 4th waves of the pandemic.

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“We are not taking any chances, this is an opportunity for Lagos to increase his resilience to this pandemic. We know that a lot of people in Lagos have been infected and there is a natural immunity and these vaccines just come to improve our ability to stop this virus from spreading within the community“.

He added: “It’s been a very intense logistics planning in Lagos over the last three weeks. We have manage to vaccinate over 120, 000 people which amount to 0.53% of the population in the state in the last two weeks.

“We are continuing day by day until we reach and exhaust the vaccines that we have and we are expected to get more consignment from legitimate vaccines centres anywhere in the world.”

Abayomi said: “Lagos has recorded about 300 minor and mild side effects and about 900 serious side effects but they are expected reaction to any vaccines. If you vaccinate 1, 000 people with polio vaccines, the recipients will react to it differently.

“Most people who get the vaccine and they starts feeling headache, weak , we tell them to take paracetamol, eat well, sleep well and dehydrate properly. They can also call the number in the jab card if are experiencing serious effect which occurs after receiving the vaccine.”

CEO MotherGold Consulting, Dr. Adesina Fagbenro, identified fear of the side effects of the vaccines, distrust of commercial interest, racial experience in some countries, personal choice vs collective responsibility, alternative use and insufficient evidence are some of the factors making the people hesitant to the vaccines.

He tasked government to engage people through positive mass movement, enlightenment programmes and lead by example.