Fascinated and elated, I could not help but clap for Ghana as I watched on television drones dropping off preserved cold Covid-19 vaccines to some distanced districts in the country. 

It spoke to me the determination by the Ghana Health Service not to leave anyone behind in the vaccination against the torturous disease, Covid-19.

When I look back and reflect on just a matter of 12 months the irreparable damage the pandemic has caused this world, our continent, our country, communities and families, I am among the first to jump for a vaccine. 

Covid-19 myths

I have been amazed at the myths making the rounds, misinforming people about the Covid-19 vaccines that our world scientists and medical experts have worked tirelessly to help the world intercept and arrest the damages of the pandemic. 

How much more damage do we want to see before anyone accepts vaccines said to have the efficacy to stop the deadly disease and lead us back into normal life.  We prayed for quick interventions as we watched thousands of human lives snatched away on daily basis by the disease.  We went on our knees as family and friends were being battered by a disease that did not have a known cure or mitigation. 

Now that in a matter of 12 months we have vaccines, the same voices are saying it is a hoax.  They argue that a period of 12 months is too short a time to develop efficacious vaccines and start administering on humans.  With the drastic and forceful nature of the disease, did it not make sense for researchers to search equally forcefully and without wasting time, for interventions?

No arguments

For me, having read widely about Covid-19 vaccines and heard expert discussions on it, I needed no more argument to be convinced.  So, on the second day of the vaccination, I took advantage and had my shot, following the cue of the President and his Vice, their spouses and 3,321 other Ghanaians reported by the Daily Graphic of March 3, 2021, to have received theirs on the first day of administration.

My verdict?  The injection was so cool.  Within minutes I was done.  24 hours after, I felt good, physically and psychologically.  What else could anyone have asked for?  I strongly believe that every Ghanaian who is being offered the opportunity for a free vaccine should grab it and go out there to get vaccinated.

It is of necessity that no eligible Ghanaian should walk around not vaccinated and get infected or in a worse case, die from misinformation. 

No adult would deny the benefits of vaccines.  We have all, in one way or the other, benefitted from a few vaccines which left visible scars on our left arms.  Subsequently, we ensured our children had the benefit of full vaccination against childhood diseases. Today, their children are also beneficiaries of vaccines that researchers and scientists have developed and are developing.

Travel requirement

Thankfully, a few of the deadly diseases have, over the years, been eradicated due to hard work of these same researchers and scientists.  We are still willingly taking yellow fever vaccinations every 10 years when we have to travel outside due to the international travel requirement. 

I will never forget a rude shock experience I had in 2012 at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Kenya when I arrived one dawn in Nairobi with a 2 month expired yellow fever vaccination card.  Due to the no-visa regime between the two countries, I never bothered to even check my travel documents before travelling, only to get there and be pulled aside by immigration like a criminal and led to a room and forcibly given a yellow fever injection after making a payment of $25. 

I can foresee a Covid-19 vaccination card becoming a travel requirement in the near future.  I can see countries insisting on visitors showing proof of vaccination before admission.  And will you blame anyone?

So, if Covid-19 is real, and if we have seen lives brutally traumatised and economies crumbled by the disease, then we should encourage one another not to weigh any options because there is none.  The only option available to us, if we have to get back to normalcy is a vaccine.

We should not miss the opportunity to vaccinate.  Those dear ones we have lost over the last 12 months to the disease would have been with us today if the COVID-19 vaccines we are tottering with were available to them. 

Let us not postpone the opportunity of a vaccine.  Let us patronise it before we curse ourselves for ignoring the call to vaccinate at no personal cost.

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The writer’s can be contacted via email: vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com