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A COVID – 19 vaccine is administered to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS – CoV – 2), the virus responsible for the deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID – 19).
On February 24, 2021, Ghana became the first country outside of India to receive doses of the COVID-19 vaccine shipped through COVAX facilities. About 600 doses of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine were received from the Serum Institute of India (SII).
Before the advent of vaccines, there were many safety concerns raised by the public. The tales of the old women said that vaccines, when administered, can cause a genetic mutation and affect sperm and, in the worst case, cause premature death.
Others also say that it is a mark of the evil 666, while some simply misunderstand that it is a way of introducing the virus into an innocent person.
The illusion seems real as it clearly unfolded today at the Santa Teresa kindergarten / nursery school in Gonja Municipal’s west cantina electoral area when students fled school dramatically for fear of being vaccinated.
The whole drama unfolded when a military plane landed near the school with military and health personnel.
Two of the military men and a nurse got off the plane and walked towards the school as if to suggest that they were going to have an official commitment to the school. At that time, the nurse was carrying a container that gave the general perception that she was carrying the COVID-19 vaccines.
The container is very similar to the one that community health nurses often carry during polio and other vaccination exercises.
The public talk from viewers at the time was that they were going to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to the students.
The students suddenly lost their cool when they saw the nurse and the military enter the school grounds. Attempted as the teachers did to control the students, the struggle for an escape route increased with most students scaling the school walls to find their way home.
Young children ran out of school to meet their parents at home. The school was empty in a matter of minutes.
When the assemblyman approached the team for their mission area, they revealed that they were heading to their camp, but only took refuge in the school premises to wait for their car. They were emphatic that they weren’t there for any COVID-19 vaccination exercises.
Most of the parents who spoke to this writer were largely unconvinced by the military’s explanation.
They insisted that their wards will not receive any vaccinations. Most parents subsequently returned their children to school out of curiosity, but were not convinced because they believed that the military was infiltrating the school to vaccinate their children.
It is clear that the “above the line method” adopted by the Ghana Health Service to convince the public to apply COVID-19 is not producing the expected results, as most parents still have the conviction that vaccines are not safe.
With fear in both parents and students, it would take a lot of sensitization for students to fully return to school tomorrow.
