The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has asked the federal government to carry out an independent evaluation of the COVID-19 vaccine before administering it on Nigerians.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV on. Monday, President of the medical body, Professor Innocent Ujah said an evaluation of the vaccine is necessary considering Nigeria’s biological, environmental and genetic composition.
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Professor Ujah recalled the era of chloroquine use when some Southern parts of the country were not responding to the drug the same way those in some parts of the North were.
‘If the vaccines come to Nigeria, we need to quickly do our own evaluation of that vaccine. I cannot say with 100% certainty that in the process of developing this vaccine and the clinical trial whether African countries were involved.’
‘While we do not question the efficacy and safety, these things vary from place to place. The responses vary from place to place.’
‘In totality, it was thought that Chloroquine wasn’t effective and we changed.’
‘If we have to use the vaccine, we need to do our own clinical trials and see. For everything that is happening now is an emergency.’
‘Even the vaccine that is produced within nine months is an emergency. Otherwise, vaccine production doesn’t take within six to nine months. It is a process,’ he said.
Recall that the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) on COVID-19 had promised that at least 40 million Nigerians will receive the vaccine for free when it is procured.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK