By Metohuey Michael Adoglo
The push for booster shots when many Nigerians are yet to be vaccinated compromises the projects structure.
Virologists believe rather than pushing for booster vaccination, the Nigerian nation should be stepping up campaigns to encourage millions of Nigerians, especially those who are yet to get their first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to get vaccinated.
Alarmed by data from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, experts are concerned that only 3.8 per cent of Nigeria’s population have been fully vaccinated.
It is also coming on the heels of the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, which has become a big challenge to the quest to tame the viral pandemic globally and in Nigeria.
According to the World Health Organisation, booster doses are administered to a vaccinated population that has completed a primary vaccination series, when with time – the immunity and clinical protection has fallen below a rate deemed sufficient in that population.
It added that the objective of a booster dose is to restore vaccine effectiveness from that deemed no longer sufficient.
Also and in line with WHO’s recommendation, at least 40 per cent of eligible Nigerians should be vaccinated before the nation begins to push for COVID-19 booster shots.