UI professor: Misinformation on COVID-19 vaccine due to inadequate sensitisation

Georgina Odaibo, professor of virology at the University of Ibadan, says the misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccine is a result of inadequate sensitisation.

Speaking in an interview with TheCable, Odaibo noted that people believe conspiracy theories on the COVID-19 vaccine because the right information is not easily available to the public.

She added that the science community should continue to communicate the success of the vaccines to the public in order to get people well-informed.

“So it is for us to educate the public, those with the right knowledge should pass out the right information. They should begin to speak out with evidence because science is evidence-based. The vaccine has been out for months now. Is there evidence that all the speculations that came out at the beginning are real? Do we have such evidence?” Odaibo said.

“So those with the right knowledge should come and speak and pass out the right information because once the right information is out there with evidence, people are bound to accept and believe it. As long as we don’t have such information, people will believe all the conspiracy theories flying around.

“But it is never late; the scientific community can and should continue to communicate the success of the vaccines so that people can see the truth for themselves with evidence. Most infections in the past have been taken care of with vaccines, so vaccine is not new. It is just that the current technology may be different but vaccine is not new for viral infections.

“We know that the best way to control, to eradicate, and to prevent is through vaccines. That is the best way to deal with viral infection; smallpox today is eradicated because of vaccine and then there was a lot of controversies even among the scientific world. That is the story of vaccines today; all the viral infections that have been controlled have been through vaccines.”

The professor stated that Nigeria became polio free as a result of vaccines, adding that more people need to be vaccinated to keep everyone safe.