Don’t deprive the vulnerable of coronavirus vaccination – Dr. Omane Boamah tells government
Medical Doctor & Health Policy Planning and Financing Analyst, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah
A Former Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, has voiced his disagreement with government’s intention not to prioritize persons with underlying health conditions and the aged for vaccination against Coronavirus when the country takes delivery of the first batch of vaccines.
Read full articleAccording to the medical doctor, depriving these persons of the vaccine will be a great mistake as these categories of people stand a huge risk of contracting the virus.
“Why must mother Ghana deprive people with underlying medical conditions and the aged protection if there are no contraindications (i.e., medical reasons not to give the vaccine)? Respectfully, have we not heard time and again from you and other government officials that comorbidities contribute to COVID induced deaths? More questions than answers,” Dr Omane Boamah wrote in a Facebook post.
The post which is a response to a statement by the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority further read that “I was shocked to the marrow when I read Ghanaians with “underlying health conditions and the aged” will not be vaccinated against the novel Coronavirus, SARS-CoV2.”
Dr Omane Boamah says he is disappointed that stakeholders were not given the opportunity to make inputs into who must be prioritized in the vaccine administration.
“It is worrying because citizens who qualify to have the vaccine may be selected against. It is also worrying because it deprives interested parties (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, public health and policy experts, journalists and Civil Society Organisations) the opportunity to make inputs, ask vital questions and institute monitoring and evaluation systems to guide the process if they wish to do so.”
“Mr. President, are they not within the domain of prioritized people in the United States of America,” he lamented.
Ghana has made a resolve to vaccinate some 17 million citizens by June 2021. This comes after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo gave the assurance government was working to provide access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines when they become available.
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