COVID-19 is real; patronise the jabs

By this time those who care about the COVID-19 pandemic have appreciable knowledge about the disease, particularly its devastation.

Therefore, it is worrying that the populace are refusing to go for the vaccination meant to stem infections.

The experts say in the case of all infectious diseases that become endemic anywhere, there is the need for herd immunity to contain them, explaining, though, that herd immunity varies with each disease.

They say, for example, that measles requires about 95 percent of a population to be vaccinated.

In the case of COVID-19, an article by experts at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health states that 70 percent is okay.

However, the classical target is 60 percent and this is what Ghana hopes to achieve by immunisinga little over 20 million of its 30.8 million population which the government has stated that it intends to do so by the end of this year.

This is a daunting task, looking at the fact that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) says only 835,989 persons have so far been fully vaccinated.

The figure represents 4.2 percent of the 20,000,859 people targeted and should people go in for all the vaccines available now,only 2,519,789  could be covered, which makes a percentage of 12.6.

That means we would be achieving 16.8 percent, which is nowhere near the 60-percent target yet an improvement.

This is why the refusal of the populace to patronise the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination is very much worrying, to the extent of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) imploring Ghanaians to go for jabs to reduce the impact of another wave.

The GMA explains that a fourth wave of the pandemic could be dire for the country’s healthcare system and that the jabs are best bet to save the situation.

The Association says “now that cases are down, it is the best time to vaccinate to prevent another wave and we must take advantage of the presence of vaccines to do so.”

The Ghanaian Times wonders why some members of the public still argue that COVID-19 is a hoax and that there is an ulterior motive behind jabs.

Among these people are those who claim the jabs would undermine their sexual performance.

There are others who say they would not receive the jabs but refuse to give reason(s).

This paper joins the GMA in its appeal for immediate patronage of the jabs as vaccines in stock have short lifespan.

In fact, it is scary to hear that Ghana is not out of the woods yet and  that “the trajectory of the virus appears to be seasonal and we do not know when the next wave will hit us, as already some countries are beginning to get a rise in number of cases.”

Prevention, they say, is better than cure, so let us go for the jabs available now and hopefully the government would be forced to procure more to achieve the targeted 60-percent herd immunity for the country.