Tuesday Nigeria received 4 million doses of the COVAX vaccine. Nigeria is only the third country to receive the vaccines and with 200 million people in the country it will be difficult to decide who gets the vaccine first. Healthcare and front-line workers are supposed to be the first ones to get the vaccine. Emirates who is a big transporter of the COVID vaccine signed up for the job because of the challenge. Richer countries have surged ahead of the less developed and poorer countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the pandemic will not end unless all the population is inoculated. Nigeria’s food and drug control agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use last month and vaccinations are set to start Friday. States without a functional airport will receive their vaccines by cars fitted with cold cabins. Government official Boss Mustapha urged traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society groups and the media to spread the message that vaccinations were needed.
With vaccinations being rapidly spread throughout the world it is a good sign. Coming up on nearly 1 year of lockdown restrictions it is time that we start taking a different approach and with the population being vaccinated we are able to start opening up stores, restaurants, entertainment, etc. Nigeria which is considered somewhat rich is able to get these vaccinations more readily because they’re able to pay for them unlike some of the poorer countries who will be the last ones to get them. This will cause some unjust in the area with people eager to get vaccinated as they want restrictions and normal lives to start again. For the future it will allow us to better understand the distribution and how to handle global pandemics better.
Globalization was used to spread the virus and the vaccination. From different countries contributing to the creation of a vaccine and then being able to work together to get our world vaccinated is fascinating. With the upcoming weeks we should start to see more vaccines being rolled out to the less developed countries as well as the continuing of vaccinations to the first responders and health care workers in Nigeria.