By Nathaniel Nartey
Executive Director of the Africa Center for Health Policy Research and Analysis Dr. Thomas Anabah has thrown his support behind the Concerned Ghanaian Doctors who have petitioned President Akufo-Addo to halt the nationwide vaccine rollout against covid-19. The petition signed by 11 doctors raised concerns over the efficacy and safety of the jabs, citing examples in Europe, Israel and Japan where the virus is still spreading, despite a high vaccination rate.
Reacting to this, Dr. Anabah who recognizes at least one of the eleven signatories to the statement said the concerns raised by the doctors are based on scientific evidence. He called on the government to intensify research on covid-19 vaccination to generate data for local use. Dr Anabah spoke to Nathaniel Nartey
”I would say the call is in the right direction and it is long overdue, it is time we told the WHO to hold the bull by the horn to say this vaccine is not what we expected it to be so I support the petition.”
Responding to concerns that the Concerned Doctors are using data from elsewhere to back their petition, Dr Anabah said, “What data did the government used before deploying the vaccines in Ghana, it’s the same data (used by the concerned doctors) that the government used to approve the use of the vaccines in Ghana. Remember Ghana never did any study on Covid-19, we imported results of studies abroad to accept the use of the vaccines, even the FDA has not given approval of the use of the vaccines, what it gave is emergency utilization of the vaccine. So based on the same reason the government is using the vaccines the researchers have also used the same countries who are using the vaccines to say it is not useful to us.”
Dr. Anabah advised Ghanaians to adhere to the Covid-19 safety protocols as it is the best means of tackling the pandemic.
