Head of vaccines at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Naziru Tanko Mohammed, has disclosed that many Ghanaians were hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccines even before their introduction into the country.
He reasoned that Ghanaians who rejected the vaccines did not understand their benefits, while several others refused them for political reasons.
Dr. Tanko Mohammed made this disclosure during a meeting among stakeholders to end phase 2 of the COVID-19 transparency and accountability project in Africa.
The meeting, which was held on 31st January 2023 at the Fiesta Royale Hotel in Accra, was organised by BudgIT Ghana, a tech-oriented civic organisation.
Speaking on the theme “Stakeholders’ Role in Boosting Health Sector Accountability and Battling Vaccine Misinformation in Ghana,” Dr. Mohammed postulated that COVID-19 is and was a pandemic that affected almost every country in the world.
According to him, the only relief for the nations of the world, and Ghana, for that matter, is vaccination with the drugs approved by the Food and Drug Authority (FDA), the institution responsible for medicinal standards in the country.
He accordingly called on Ghanaians who have not yet taken a jab, to go for the vaccine to prevent them from contracting the disease.
Dr. Mohammed praised the coalition, which comprises the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ghana Health Service (GHS), and Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIMR), among others, for fostering accountability and transparency in the fight against COVID-19 while lauding the cumulative efforts of stakeholders in combating the disease since its onset.
He also thanked BudgIT Ghana for carrying out such a survey and bringing to light the realities on the ground regarding the misinformation that surrounded the vaccine in Ghana.
“We are pleased with how the coalition is ensuring transparency and accountability of individual agencies as we seek to tackle the disease. We shall study the findings, reinforce what we are doing right, and improve on the areas we are not doing well,” he said.
For her part, Communications Lead at BudgIT Ghana, Jennifer Moffatt, expressed concern over the government’s scanty budgetary allocation to the health sector.
