COVID-19: Injecting celebrities with vaccines strategic – EPI boss

Program Manager for Ghana’s Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) under the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Kwame Amponsa-Akyianu says districts injecting celebrities with the COVID-19 vaccines are doing so with a bigger goal in mind.
He believes this goal is to drive the campaign of assuring the Ghanaian populace of the safety of the vaccines and dispelling myths surrounding it.
Prior to Ghana starting its mass vaccination exercise on Tuesday, 2nd March, 2021, a roll out plan was released by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) which included targeted persons for the first phase of vaccinations.
Although the list did not include celebrities and socialites, this group have gone for their first shots of the vaccine, sharing pictures on social media platforms and encouraging others to go for the vaccination.
This has raised questions in the media space as to whether authorities are actually following the vaccine administration list and demanded clarity on the approved list for the first phase of the vaccination exercise.
Reacting to this in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy 98.9 FM, Kwame Amponsa-Akyianu said, “I can’t explain why celebrities are receiving the vaccine first but I am sure they are on the list because they qualify as media. We shared the doses amongst the various target groups equitably”.
He describe districts where these celebrities and socialites were vaccinated as strategic thinkers.
“This group of people are champions and I think if these public figures take the vaccine and share pictures on social media, they will get more people to also receive the vaccine. I think they are using them as champions to get others Ghanaians accept the vaccine”, he reiterated.
Ghana’s vaccination program is expected to be carried out in three phases in which frontline health workers, persons with underlying conditions, frontline security personnel, members of the legislature, executive, and judiciary will be among the first set of individuals to receive the vaccine.
The next group of persons to be vaccinated in the second phase are workers of water and electricity companies, teachers, students, farmers, and all those involved in the country’s food value chain while all persons 18 years, as well as pregnant women, will have their vaccination done in phase three of the exercise.
By; Joel Sanco