The president Buhari-led administration has received a strong warning from American Philanthropist, Bill Gates, against expending its limited resources on the purchase of pricey COVID19 vaccines when it can wait for those from GAVI.
Gates gave the advice during a virtual press conference ahead of the launch of the 2021 Bill and Melinda Gates Annual Letters on Tuesday night, January 26.
He said waiting for the GAVI vaccines would be the best thing for Nigeria and that investing proposed vaccine funds into other health-related areas would assist to deepen vaccine coverage and save lives.
“The key is that Nigeria is still eligible (for GAVI Vaccinee), and so, for a lot of those vaccines, they will come through the GAVI facility that we’ve raised money for.
I’m an advocate for the government to have more resources and prioritise health. Obviously I’m not a voter in Nigeria, so Nigeria can decide that independently.
So my advice is that the primary health care system is what’s super important and that with those finite resources, you have to prioritise expenditure. And in that case, waiting for the GAVI vaccines would be the best thing” he said
Gavi is a global Vaccine Alliance that brings together public and private sectors, creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries.
Gates also called on every government to begin preparations for the next pandemic as the COVID19 pandemic is certainly not the last the world would experience.
“The unfortunate reality is that COVID19 might not be the last pandemic. We don’t know when the next one will strike, or whether it will be a flu, a coronavirus, or some new disease we’ve never seen before.
But what we do know is that we can’t afford to be caught flat?footed again. The threat of the next pandemic will always be hanging over our heads—unless the world takes steps to prevent it”he said
