A renowned Nigerian professor of virology, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, has urged Nigerians to come out en masse and take the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination.
He was speaking after taking his jab at one of the vaccination centres in Abuja.
He commended the Nigerian government for taking the prompt initiative to bring in the vaccine and urged the governments at other levels to complement the action.
Prof. Tomori also said that over the years, people have received different vaccinations for different viruses with mild side effect, that of AstraZeneca shouldn’t be perceived differently.
“The human system is different and reacts differently to things. The way I react to panadol is different from the way you will react. When we took Yellow fever vaccination, people reacted. One or two people will die but because one person dies does not mean that others should not take precautions. Some people eat eggs and react to it. Does that mean we should stop eating eggs?” Prof Tomori asked.
He said that the issue of vaccine hesitancy is a global issue that calls for urgent action.
The Professor of virology noted that the sooner people embrace and take the vaccine, the faster the world will return to normal.
He added that those questioning the efficiency of the AstraZeneca vaccine are doing that out of the ignorance of the facts.
He also cautioned people who are saying that the vaccine was hurriedly put together to disist from doing so.
“Those people saying that the vaccine came too early should stop doing so. There is a template existing already. All scientists needed to do was to plug in and develop vaccines. So, saying COVID-19 vaccine was developed in less than one iOS not correct. It was developed from an existing template,” Prof. Tomori said.
He added that people should expect from mild to severe reaction from the vaccine, which is normal.
