An Immunologist and Research Fellow at the West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana, has called for swift measures in the disseminating of the novel coronavirus vaccines to break the back of the pandemic.

According to Dr Yaw Bediako, vaccination must be “hard, fast and very efficient” as available data and evidence currently indicate that none guarantees lifetime protection against the virus.

“Evidence we have suggests that immunity develops within about 21-days so it’s a window after vaccination where it takes a while for your immune system to round up,” he said on Tuesday.

So for instance, “If immunity lasts for 12 or 18 months, what it means is that after that point, you will no longer be protected.”

“But this is why we [Doctors] are saying we need to vaccinate quickly. If we vaccinate quickly enough, if we hit head immunity before the window period closes, then we will drive down transmission to a point where we break the back of the pandemic,” as there will be no more virus around to infect anyone.

Ghana will on Wednesday receive its first batch of 600,000 AstraZeneca vaccine as indicated by the Minister-Designate for Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu.

Speaking on PM:Express Tuesday, the Immunologist said the good news is that the AstraZeneca vaccine, lasts for 4 to 12 weeks, unlike other vaccines that last between 21 to 28 days.

“It’s a good thing because we can vaccinate a large number of people and hopefully by the time we get to the second dose, more vaccines have come to allow us to give people the second dose,” Dr Bediako said.

He, however, noted the country’s failure to act swiftly with vaccination will only incur a cost to the country and a waste of time.

“If we trickle it out, we are throwing money away because in 18 months we will have to vaccinate everyone all over again because we haven’t achieved anything,” he observed.

Dr Bediako said “If we can vaccinate enough people to drive down transmission, to the point that you break the transmission cycle, then even when the first people we had vaccinated had lost their immunity, there would be no worry “because there is no virus around.”