COVID-19 vaccine: Sam George condemns 'ceremonial' welcoming of Covax 'free gift', but Andah disagrees

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Pampram, Hon. Sam George has condemned the pump and pageantry welcoming of Covid-19 vaccines delivered to Ghana yesterday by COVAX platform.

The MP stressed that it is a good thing to procure the vaccines for the country, however it was needless for Ghana to hold a ceremony to outdoor “a free gift” for the world to see.

“My problem is what is been dashed then you go and do outdooring. And for Covid-19 vaccines, they broke the Covid protocols."

Apart from condemning the outdooring ceremony of the vaccines, he bemoaned the non-adherence of COVID-19 protocols during the ceremony.

“There was no social distancing, and everybody was standing there 'begyaa', I mean what kind of joke is this?” he queried.

He made the observations on GHToday on Ghone TV, Thursday morning.

But in a quick rebuttal, co-panelist, former MP for Awutu Senya West, Hon. George Nenyi Andah disagreed, saying the ceremony was significant for Ghanaians to witness the arrival of the vaccines.

According to him, it showed the whole world the efforts taken by government in the roll-out plan accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“I think that it was a very significant aspect of the roll-out campaign. It showed Ghana including the whole world the efforts that government had put in to make sure that we had delivered the roll-out plan that has been accepted by the WHO, that Ghana was a trailblazer."

According to him, the fear and misconception surrounding the vaccine is imperative on government to address any negativity of which the ceremony served a significant purpose.

"You know that there is a lot of negativity and Hon. Sam George touched on that when he was talking about people making sure that they go for the vaccine and stuff like that," he told the host of GHTODAY, Serwaa Amihere.

He added, “These are people that don’t believe that the vaccine giving will help manage the process. But this intervention is a significant game changer in the entire process to manage COVID-19. And what we did yesterday, it was on BBC, CNN, it was all over."