By: Nyima Sillah
The Ministry of Health has said The Gambia will continue with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine despite some countries temporarily halt the use of the vaccine due to blood clots claim.
Buba Darboe, program manager at the Ministry of Health said: “The Gambia will continue to use the AstraZeneca vaccine despite other countries temporally suspend it.”
‘So many countries have suspended it temporarily just for precautionary measures but the attack they are getting from the experts is that even those countries should think of continuing the vaccination, because there is no evidence to say that those blood clot cases were link to the vaccination,” he added.
However, scores of Gambians are raising concern over the vaccine as they are trapped in limbo over the credibility of it [vaccine].
Aisha Fatty said: “Since the vaccine arrived in the countries there has been so many rumors going on and now that it has already circulated around the world the vaccine has side effect. And the Ministry is little too late to convince the citizens despite the temporary suspension in other countries.”
She called on the Ministry of Health to be cautious and they should come out to the public clearly and clear the dust of rumors surrounding the vaccine.
“[The] Gambia has experts but relies too much on other countries and that should not be done. Even though the Ministry of Health approved the vaccine and said it is safe still they should take examples from other countries that are more developed than us,” Lamin Fatty mumbled.
He added that “Covid-19 is our main problem and the Ministry is trying very hard to eradicate this virus in the country but that should not make them to take any decision that will worsen the situation. The white people want to cause us more harm than good,” he alleged.
So far, so good, the first vaccination process is targeting health workers while the Ministry is getting very good turn out from the health workers who are definitely cooperating to get vaccinated and “even some people are calling saying they want to be vaccinated.”