WHO Ends Nigeria’s Global Vaccine Bid Because of ‘Light’

In an outstanding turn of events, the World Health Organisation-led COVAX global initiative has removed Nigeria from its shortlist for the Pfizer vaccines following the inability of its government to guarantee appropriate conditions to store the vaccines.

The vaccines need to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius while not in use but without adequate electricity supply in Nigeria, this would be next to impossible to achieve.

Alternatives were offered, as the Nigerian government offered to power the storage facilities of the 100,000 doses it was looking forward to receiving through the COVAX initiative with generators.

The Director, WHO, African Region, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, explicitly stated that it cannot risk the vaccines being wasted since Nigeria has shown that proper storage conditions are not available.

She said only four African countries were shortlisted for the Pfizer vaccine out of the 13 that applied, meaning Nigeria and 8 other countries have been cut of.

Around 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries – Cape Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia. This vaccine has received WHO Emergency Use Listing but requires countries to store and distribute doses at minus 70 degrees Celsius.

"To access an initial limited Pfizer vaccine volume, countries were invited to submit proposals. Thirteen African countries submitted proposals and were evaluated by a multi-agency committee based on current mortality rates, new cases and trends, and the capacity to handle the vaccine's ultra-cold chain needs.

"This announcement allows countries to fine-tune their planning for COVID-19 immunisation campaigns. We urge African nations to ramp up readiness and finalise their national vaccine deployment plans. Regulatory processes, cold chain systems and distribution plans need to be in place to ensure vaccines are safely expedited from entry ports to delivery. We can't afford to waste a single dose." She said.

The WHO set up the COVAX initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level.

The Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Prof Babatunde Salako admitted that there was not enough space at the moment to store the Pfizer vaccines at that temperature.

But the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, had described the report as fake, saying Nigeria could store the vaccines and had taken journalists on a tour of its facility in Abuja.