Just How Catastrophic Is This Headline?

I heard many conspiracy theories about the covid vaccine, and I’m sure you did too. But when I saw this headline last week, my eyes popped out of their sockets. It was the “again” that got me. So we been don de take am before?

What are Vaccines?

Now, here’s a simple explanation of what vaccines are and how they work. Stick with me. You’ll see why this is important later.

Our bodies have immune systems to fight these “enemies” (foreign cells), and memory cells to remember them (to fight them better next time). The problem is that the very first invasion of a particular enemy confuses your body. It doesn’t know how to fight it, so it keeps trying to figure this out. And while this is happening, the enemy is striking and weakening the body. Might subdue you before your body gets around to figure it out.

So scientists thought, why don’t we take these enemy cells, remove that part of them that causes infection, and introduce them to the body? The body still perceives them as enemies. Except, their weapons have been taken away, making them harmless. The body takes time to figure things out, fight the cells, and save the memory. This way, when the infection comes, the soldiers are already on standby to defeat them.

Those inactivated cells (enemies without weapons) are vaccines. There are many ways to inactivate them, but this already looks like an Immunology lecture, and nobody wants a science lecture this new year.

But indulge me a bit more. Dr. Ken who taught Microbiology at the University of Nigeria gave an instance. Say people were charged with administering a certain vaccine to a community. The vaccine is to be kept below 4°C. Now, while administering, they find that the temperature has risen above the threshold. If they aren’t professionals, they would say,

“Ehh, na only 50 people remain. We can’t go back to freeze and return just for 50 people. Let’s just finish up.”

Now, it could be that low temperature inactivates the vaccine. As the temperature rises, its ability to cause infection rises as well. For those 50 people, they just may have injected active (infective) cells in place of the vaccine. Problems will emerge and it will be viewed from a general angle.

“500 people were vaccinated and it only showed adverse effects on 50. That’s 10%.” They will attribute it to allergies or say those people were sick before.

This, in general, shows just how careless we are with issues of health in this country.

If you speak to these men at Ogbo-ogwu, Onitsha, they still talk about the late Dora Akunyili with contempt. The woman who destroyed goods worth millions, closed down shops, and rendered men helpless. To them, she’s the villain. That is why, even as I was surprised to hear of the attack and murder of her husband in Anambra state, I still saw motive.

They don’t understand what it meant that a sh**load of expired drugs was in circulation. They don’t understand what this meant for us, for them, their mothers, their sons, and daughters. It’s always about the money, till it hits close to home.

 Finally, the Covid-19 vaccine, how it’s made and the mode of operation, falls within what I have explained above. And I’m sure you’d agree that expired vaccines don’t sound good in any way. For a country to willingly and gracefully dish it out to its citizens, you just have to wonder: are we evil or just perpetually dumb?