Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Titus Beyuo, has pointed to selfishness on the part of those who got the first dose of the vaccination to the fresh spike in the cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
According to him, many of those who receive the first dose of the vaccination believed they were effectively protected and literally dropped down their guards leading to the current third wave.
He stated that those who were lucky to be vaccinated first attended funerals feeling they were okay when 99% of people at the same funeral have not.
“When the little aliquot of vaccines started dropping into the country, the few vaccinated began showing the selfish lifestyle of thinking that they are protected, and therefore they can just do anything.”
“Other than the word selfish I don’t know how to describe this because we have less than 2% of the population vaccinated and yet others believed they are protected because they have been vaccinated and therefore can do anything else,” he stated.
Speaking on TV3’s analytical Saturday morning talk show, The Key Points, Dr. Beyuo argued that it is a very sad situation Ghana finds itself in because society effectively went to sleep when the state began to experience a drop in the infection rate.
He argued that it was not the vaccination but rather the concerted efforts of all the citizenry and people behaving very well that brought down the second.
According to him, Ghanaians of all walks of life put in their best efforts in the observance of the safety protocols, however, just when progress was being made society relaxed and dropped its guard.
He stated that when the delta variant started coming in, experts called for tact and caution because of the understanding of the epidemiology of the strain and the degree of its attack rate, which will be a serious challenge if it entered the country.
He averred that the biggest challenge facing the country in managing the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is the handling of the government’s Risk communication.
He said, “While the warning noises were being made, those managing the risk communication were in a fix not knowing whether to tap the panic button, tell people to remain calm or reassure people of what the country has to do.”
“These types of messaging confused everybody in addition to the behaviour of political leaders pretending there was nothing wrong,” he said.
Politician leadership, he said, have utterly failed the Ghanaian people and going forward there is a need to look for new direction and inspiration from other people in society.
Dr. Beyuo averred that since Ghana cannot get enough vaccines to rapidly vaccinate the population, Ghanaians should take their personal protection into their own hands
He warned that until these personal safety protocols become a part of the Ghanaian lifestyle, the country has a huge challenge to surmount in respect of the third wave being experienced.
He lamented that majority of the Ghanaian population does not believe COVID and its effects are real because they look up to politicians who are the worse culprits among those violating the safety protocols.
Source: MyPublisher24.com