Dr. Solomon Chollom, the spokesman for Plateau Inter-professional Health Committee on COVID-19 Response, has called for transparency in vaccine development and outcomes of clinical trials.
Chollom, a virologist, spoke on Monday in Abuja on the side-line of the 2021 World Immunization Week.
Celebration of the 2021 World Immunisation Week, which has “Vaccines Bring Us Closer’’, as its theme, began on April 24 and would end on April 30.
Key stakeholders in vaccine research, production, administration, and marketing set the week aside annually to review progress and challenges bordering on vaccines, vaccination, and immunization to increase vaccine access through advocacy.
Chollom said vaccine trials must cover population groups and climes and get the buy-in of recipients to reduce hesitancy and resistance
“This year’s celebration focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic and how safety protocols like quarantine, isolation, social distancing, and lockdown had kept us apart.
“To restore and resume normal life and living, safe and effective vaccines must be introduced to bring us closer to one another since vaccines protect us and eradicate diseases.
“Eradication of the pandemic through immunization is achievable.
“Our memory is fresh on how vaccines played key roles in rolling back pandemics like bubonic plague, influenza, smallpox, and most recently, polio, to mention a few,’’ he said.
The virologist enjoined all stakeholders to look deeper and objectively at feedbacks generated by vaccines introduction and administration, especially with the COVID-19 vaccine.
He said every concern raised must be scientifically investigated and stakeholders must meticulously address the concerns as public perception and confidence in vaccines hangs on a delicate balance.
The concerns, he said, could be those bordering on safety or efficacy, or availability.
Chollom stressed the need for effective and strategic communication to precede the introduction of new vaccines to keep the public enlightened and well-informed.
He noted that such communications must be based on verifiable data that addressed safety and efficacy to scale down the possibility of negative build-up against vaccine introduction.
“Health professionals must be ahead of the times in research and development to ensure that the world does not get caught in another round of pandemic that cripples economies and disrupts human activities,’’ he emphasized.
The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on its website last Saturday that a year ago, there were 26 dangerous diseases for which there were safe and effective vaccines to prevent and control.
“Today, we add COVID-19 to the list of vaccine-preventable diseases as four vaccines are currently being deployed under emergency use to save lives and livelihoods from the grip of the pandemic.
“As of April 2021, almost 70 preventive immunization campaigns in over 60 countries remain postponed due to COVID-19, and routine immunization coverage is down globally, including in the United States.’’
Tracing the origins of vaccines, Baylor University Medical Centre in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A, cited the U.S. National Library of Medicine at the National Institute of Health as recalling that the first grand effort on the first vaccine was by Edward Jenner in 1796.
Jenner took cowpox swab from a dairymaid, Sarah Nelms, who had fresh lesions on her hands and arms and inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps with it since it had been observed that those who suffered from cowpox never contracted smallpox.
Subsequently, the boy developed mild fever and discomfort in his armpit.
Nine days after the procedure he felt cold and had lost his appetite, but on the next day, he was much better.
In July 1796, Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with matter from a fresh smallpox lesion. No disease developed, and Jenner concluded that protection was complete.
His efforts later became part of the global trend in vaccine production.
