Youth influencers drawn from Pankshin, Mangu, Kanam, Kanke, and Bokkos Local Government areas of Plateau central zone have been sensitized on Covid-19 Vaccine safe and Effectiveness at a townhall meeting.

The town hall meeting with Youth influencers was in tandem with the project activities for Covid-19 Vaccine Public Awareness, Vaccines safety and effectiveness by Friday Bako with support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) held on Friday, 17th June at Chorbe Hall, Pankshin LGA, Plateau State.

Public Health Policy Manager, Consultant Pathologist Bingham University Teaching Hospital, and Financial Secretary, NMA Plateau State Chapter, Dr Mbwas Mashor, while delivering a presentation spoke on Covid-19 Vaccine Safety and Effectiveness.

He stated that the world Governments Provided a speedy remedy to the Covid-19 pandemic due to the many restrictions it came with, as it even shut down world economies, even leading to the restrictions on international travels, which led to stakeholders investing in the production of the vaccine to ensure that there was a recovery of world economies.

Dr Mbwas Mashor, while allaying the fears of participants on the Covid-19 Vaccines, stated that the vaccines have passed through all required safety stages including the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it was authorized for public use.

“The more we all take the vaccine, the more we all get immunity against the vaccine, It means that the virus will not have any conducive environment to multiply and therefore we will stop the multiplication of the virus around and then with time the elimination the virus ads such it must be a collective effort”.

Acceptance of the vaccine is a collective effort, if only a few people get the vaccine, the virus will now multiply amongst those that did not get the vaccine and will constitute a nuisance and become a problem and disease to the people, that is why it is important for everyone to get the vaccine so that we will develop a higher immunity so the virus will have no individual left to multiply”. Dr Mbwas further stated.

Comr Friday Bako, Implementing Partner of CITAD/MacArthur Foundation COVID-19 Vaccine Public Awareness Project, while addressing participants at the town hall meeting, stated that the meeting was an opportunity to reach out to influential youths because of their strengths in diseminating information.

He called on Youths to be ambassadors that will talk to others about the safety and effectiveness of the covid-19 Vaccines so as to increase the vaccine uptake in the state as the only alternative to curb the dreaded covid-19 virus.

Comr Bako admonished them to go back to their communities, sharing whathas been discussed in correcting the misinformation and disinformation that has hermperd the uptake of the Vaccines thereby increasing the level of general acceptability within Plateau state and Nigeria in general.

The high point of the Town Hall meeting was the presentation of drama on covid19 Vaccine safety, with many participants assenting to become advocates and ambassadors for correcting some of the wrong perceptions that are contributing to the slow uptake of the covid-19 vaccines, especially in Nigeria

Participants at the programme, Koden Nenfa, Peter Blessing, Dauda Nantap and David Halleluya both commended the organizer of the awareness campaign Comrade Friday Bako For the gesture while promising to take back the message to their respective Communities for use.