Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, President, Centre for Change, has urged the Federal Government to consider herd immunity as the solution to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Mrs Okei-Odumakin made the recommendation in a statement issued in Lagos on Monday.
Herd immunity, also called herd effect, community immunity, population immunity, or social immunity, is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection.
This is whether through previous infections or vaccination, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who were not immuned.
Mrs Okei-Odumakin said this was necessary as the pandemic was not showing any sign of reducing anytime soon.
“With the current figures far exceeding a thousand as we have earlier envisaged, it is without a doubt that the intervention in place is definitely insufficient.
“Hence, the recommendation of personal hygiene, use of face masks, physical distancing and, most importantly, education of the most vulnerable
“Also importantly is monitoring and education of the task force for them to see and treat most individuals as victims and not criminals.
“It is applaudable that the federal government is considering decentralisation of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) intervention but it is also most important that there is no total collapse of civil order.
“What is most recommended as stated by the Lagos State Government is a splendid idea, which is a compulsory use of face masks, regular hand washing, physical distancing and cleansing of all surfaces with alternate day-market visits,” she said.
Mrs Okei-Odumakin said this was more so with the world statistics reading almost three million infected victims and fatalities almost as high as 300,000 and mortalities in the United States about a quarter of the world’s mortality figures.
The NGO president said it only became expedient for the country to re-evaluate her statistics and interrogate her responses, keeping in view morbidity as opposed to mortality.
She said the recommendation of a functional system with researching epidemiologists should be a consideration of personal hygiene, use of face masks, physical distancing and importantly, education of the most vulnerable.
NAN
