FG Plans to Give Nigerians COVID-19 Vaccines Without Clinical Trial
Unlike what is obtainable in other countries, the Nigerian government appears set to administer COVID-19 vaccines on its citizens without conducting a local clinical trial.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has ruled out the possibility of conducting a local clinical trial on the proposed N400bn vaccines before administering them on Nigerians, saying since the World Health Organisation (WHO) had approved the vaccines, there might not be need to conduct another clinical trial on it locally.
NAFDAC however said it would subject vaccines, which may cost Nigeria N400 billion to procure, to proper revalidation before administering them on Nigerians.
NAFDAC claims that the exigencies of COVID-19 demands that trial before administering the vaccines be jettisioned.
“Once the vaccine arrives, a sample will be taken to the lab for a test. Once its safety and efficacy are certified by NAFDAC, it will be administered on Nigerians. We don’t expect anything to be different though”, a NAFDAC media consultant was quoted to have said.
“The truth is that once a vaccine is approved by the WHO, it is assumed that it has passed through some preliminary stage of the trial. It is a known fact that for the WHO to sanction a vaccine, it must have gone through a series of trial here and there,” he said.
He also said NAFDAC’s evaluation of the vaccine would not be rigorous because it’s not a new vaccine, but noted that its efficacy and safety needed to be ratified.
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Is the WHO even trusted in these recent days? It should be tested that’s how unfailed States operate.