By Chimezie Godfrey
The Centre for Information Technology and Development CITAD) has called for greater transparency in the management of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The Executive Director, CITAD, Y. Z Yau who made the call in a statement on Thursday, said CITAD is with support from MacArthur Foundation implementing a public education project on the COVID vaccines.
According him, the aim of the project is to increase up take of the vaccine to protect citizens across states in Northern Nigeria, including Kaduna, Bauchi among other States.
He revealed that in the course of their work they have come across cases of vaccine resistance which is fueled by misinformation and disinformation about the vaccine, adding that they are working hard through the media and other means to combat this.
The Executive Director furhter said that in the field while they workedb with their partners, they heard that there were expired vaccines in some of the vaccine stocks of the country.
“We considered this as one more instance of rumour that we had to combat. However, as we were trying to reach out to health officers to help disabuse the rumour, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire was reported in the news (see Daily Trust, December 9, 2021, page 13) admitting that indeed that there were expired vaccines but these were not in circulation and that government was planning to burn them.
“While an early admittance along with clear steps to remove the expired vaccine will help in assuring the public about the safety and quality of the vaccines available at vaccination outlets, we feel that this has to be handled carefully and with greater transparency and openness that will assure the public that no expired vaccines will be allowed at any vaccination outlet.
“In particular, we will like to call on the Minister to:Disclose the batch numbers of the expired vaccines Disclose if and where these vaccines are or were, give a clear and transparent process of the withdrawal of the expired vaccines up to the stage of burning so that journalists and other stakeholders can follow up and assure the public that such expired vaccines are truly removed from the system.
“Such openness will make it easier to overcome vaccine resistance by assuring them through independent voices of the quality of the vaccine,” he said.
Yau reiterated CITAD’s believe that transparency is an important element in building and maintaining public confidence that is critical to getting the people to take the jab.
He therefore stressed that the Ministry of Health has the important responsibility to do that in this delicate time of a near-panic globally over the new variant of the virus.
