Let’s make COVID-19 vaccines available

Last Saturday, the government, after a long wait, finally took delivery of 177,600 doses of the single-shot Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, bringing to 1,515,450 the total number of doses the country has so far received.

Procurement of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was done under the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), a purchasing facility instituted by the African Union (AU) to boost the continent’s access to vaccines on the global market.

Under AVAT, AU member countries, including Ghana, have pooled financial resources to purchase vaccines. This comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on vulnerable economies, including those in the lower-middle-income bracket such as ours.

The pandemic, which is in its third wave, with the advent of the Delta variant, is creating a lot of anxiety, fear and panic among members of society because of the impact, not only on lives but also businesses.

The global disease, interestingly, has become one for which a vaccine is difficult to come by, in spite of the huge demand and the arrangements being made by international bodies, such as the AU, among other sub-regional bodies.

It is against this background that the Daily Graphic is supportive of the suggestion by a Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Chartered Economists, Dr Sam Ankrah, that the government open the door for companies, particularly blue chips and multinationals, including the mining and telecoms giants, to import vaccines for their workers and their stakeholders as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

To avoid abuse and ensure that the government has full grasp of what is imported in terms of efficacy, he suggested to the government to ensure that any such imports were done under the strict supervision of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

This suggestion, we think, is in the right direction and timely. Should it be considered, it will help reduce the huge financial burden on the taxpayer in our bid to acquire the vaccines.

Again, it will help reduce the stress on the government to find the vaccines because these companies and multinationals can use their international contacts to access the vaccines for a good cause.

The impact of the COVID-19 on the economy is telling and the earlier we find more innovative means to reduce the cost on the Consolidated Fund, the better for all. We also believe that the earlier we reach herd immunity, the better for us to prevent the needless deaths and open up the economy for more activities.

We are happy that the country, even after the partial lock down and the restrictions imposed, has been able to recover strongly to reach pre-COVID-19 levels, according to the Bank of Ghana in its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) report last month. This is a clear indication of the determination of the government and the people to ensure that the economy is restored to normalcy, without any let or hindrance.

The COVID-19, as many experts in the medical field say, has come to stay. The virus, we are told, will mutate and may get worse; but no matter what, we must ensure that the rate of infection is very low.

While we urge the government to relax the procedures as to who can import the vaccine under strict supervision, we also urge it to ensure that the funds from the Consolidated Fund used to procure the vaccines are used transparently for the people to be abreast of the amounts being used in their name.

Our stance is premised on the fact that the lack of transparency sometimes affects speedy access to the vaccines because instead of working to import the vaccines, sometimes the authorities are caught in a crossfire, trying to answer critics who suspect foul play with the money used for the imports.

We need the vaccines and the earlier we rethink how to get them in large quantities through the right channels to save majority of our people, the better for us as a country because we need to reach herd immunity, and fast too, to save our people.