I will start today from an unrelated development. On 27/8/21, I saw a report on the front page of ThisDay that the author and finisher of Hopism, Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state had declared free marriage between Fulani settlers and Imo ladies, undertaking to offset the bride prices and imposing stiff penalties on reluctant parents. I was dazed and wondered whether this was another principle of Hopism. Anyway, I opened a file for the story, placed it on the queue, to be interrogated when time and space permitted, which may be in the next 6 months.
Before long, there were disclaimers all over the place, from ThisDay itself and from numerous others who now showed the original and fake ThisDay publications for the same day. Around that period, there were also pictures of fully turbaned Hope (which may also be fake!) You see, I am not a journalist and I depend mostly on published reports. And whenever I confirm a report in the likes of Guardian, BusinessDay, ThisDay, Vanguard, Punch, Channels, AIT, I am at peace. This is an eye opener. I know that the ‘mathemagic’ of Uzodinma’s ascendance created serious ‘hopeless’ (anti-Hope) sentiments in the state and indeed, ana-Igbo. He has been accused of recklessly pursuing the fulanisation of Imo State as a payback for his magical electoral victory. However, I never imagined that somebody would go to this extent just to ‘show him’. The perpetrators forgot, as our people would say, that you do not lie about a place that could easily be visited. This is an extreme anti-hopist gambit and they have given the great Lai another bullet in his multidimensional war against fake news, hate speech and social media. I am still in shock but I have learnt a lesson: Caveat Emptor. Now back to business.
Read Also: Cloned THISDAY publication on Uzodimma handiwork of desperate elements – Imo Govt
Coro has been coming and going like Abiku, these three seasons and the new seasons emerge, with new and wicked variants, which readily confound our medical systems and hit the people below the belt. The data from everywhere is scary as more and more people are afflicted and affected, directly or collaterally. Nigeria had a single day case of 1149(18/8/21), the highest since early 2020 and7246 fresh infections and 85 coro-induced death in the 12 days from 16th to 27th August, with Lagos, A/Ibom and Rivers as the key drivers. 39366009 have been vaccinated (as at 27/8/21) and we received 129264 doses from the UK in August (‘papa-dash-me’)while NAFDAC has announced that Nigeria would soon start manufacturing its own vaccines. However, our vaccination record is poor at 0.69% fully vaccinated as against Egypt, (9%),Ghana (1.3%)S-Africa, (6.7%) Kenya (2.5%) andTogo,(2%). On the other hand, WHO has ranked Nigeria 4th best in response to the second phase of vaccination with more resources and logistics. This is as the FGN has lined up at least N36bn for the 3rd wave. Reports on vaccines across the globe is still far from palatable as the Pfizer vaccine is just 39% effectivein Israel where the Delta variant ( now in 90 countries)is dominant though it is still 88% effective against hospitalization and 91% against severe illness while generally, it drops to 84% after 6 months. But it is still good business for Pfizer which had sold $7.8bn Covid-19 shots in the second quarter. As some countries are forcing their citizens to be jabbed, Biden is suggesting that people be paid $100 to jab ( N52700!!). If Nigeria would offer 10% of this sum, surely many vaccine hesitant Nigerians would repent. Meanwhile, Lagos State now consumes about 400 oxygen cylinders daily( up from 75 when this wave started) and that about 1100 returnees had absconded from isolation and as it happened in the two previous phases, our big men are succumbing to the virus, including OnaEkhomu, a security expert whom we hosted on Electrocom Half-Our (our rested program) on the deployment of technology for security management, Professor BankoleOke( whose death amongst others forced UI to go virtual) and Mohammed Fawehinmi.
Read also: Towards a safe and accessible COVID-19 vaccine programme in Nigeria
There are other weird developments about coro around the globe and I will start with Nigeria where an APC chieftain Up-north had wished that Coro had killed our President( this is condemnable) and to Pennsylvania, where Margaret Ann Cirko will spend 2 years in prison for purposely coughing on $35000 fresh produce, bakery and meat items shouting “I have the virus, now you are all going to get sick.” and to California where Stephen Harmon of the Hillsongmegachurch, and who mocked Coro vaccines died after a month-long battle with the virus and to Kenya where Stephen Karanja, another anti-vaccine doctor died of Coro. Meanwhile, peoples’ phones had been hacked by fraudsters who claim to be NNDC operatives while people have been advised to wear masks because at least, it would save them from the embarrassment of their creditors or spouses,( especially when they are engaged in unholy games), who would not recognize them along the road. Coro is still with us; it is real and it is deadly. Take care!
Conspiracy Theories & Vaccine Hesitancy. Professor UchennaNwosu, Odenigbo Igbo-Ukwu
I have written on this matter, especially after my own double-jabbing but it has continued unabated. The most recent was a report that Bill Gates has called for the withdrawal of all Coro Vaccines because they are ‘far more dangerous than anyone imagined. It was a published document but the publishers declared that it was a SATIRE. Yet people have flooded all the media-space with it, especially the online media where everybody is the reporter, subeditor, editor, quality controller and Editor-in-Chief all in one. Already, a vaccine propelled ‘civil-war’ is brewing in Edo state between the government, which has ordered that those without vaccines would not have access to public facilities( Ondo has also made it compulsory), and a coalition of ‘human right activists’ led by Kola Edokpayi who had declared that any attempt to force Edo people to be jabbed ‘shall be vehemently resisted’. I am doubly jabbed and I have no regrets about that. Some people may also not want to be jabbed (only two of us are jabbed in my family of six!) and so be it. What I find inexplicable is that those who do not want to be jabbed are consciously confusing, confounding and frightening others with all sorts of anti-vaccine stories, some of which are fabricated. Anyway, as I promised in my last Coro-related intervention, here are the brief but scientifically-based views of Professor UchennaNwosu, Medical Director of Apex Group Specialists on thismatter. He offered this when this matter became a hot one in some of the platforms where I operate. Here it goes:
Read Also: Coro: Drinking over-tea when we have not taken tea!
First, let me say that there are rules for a scientific experimentation or demonstration: It is carried out and verified in the open. It is not done in privacy, to be followed by public demonstration of the result, a control is usually included and the experiment must be reproducible at all times in similar situations. What makes these COVID-19 post vaccination demonstrations look more like transparent propaganda rather than scientific experiments are as follows: 1. Even before COVID-19 reared its ugly spike glycoprotein attachments the concept of vaccination had already become politicized by various groups in promotion of their parochial interests. 2. COVID-19 issue has become an ideological/religious battle in US between the anti-vaccine white supremacists/religious right and the rest of the society, now morphing between the Red States (largely anti-COVID vaccination) and the Blue States (largely pro COVID vaccination). This ugly battle has left those who do not have an in depth understanding of the functioning of the human body not just confused, but dazed. 3. Unlike what obtained in the past century, the COVID-19 vaccines were derived by different principles: some by using the entire viral particle (old time-tested method use by AstraZeneca) others by using the viral product called messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) of the new method (Pfizer).Now for the claimed absurd side effects, it is well known that the nervous system of the body has a nano voltage (extremely small) electrical system. However if the body were to become fully electrically conductive or magnetized as portrayed in the anti-vaccination videos:a. One would be self-electrocuted instantly; b Cardiac arrhythmias would provide another path to instant death; of course, one’s inherent brain nano circuits would be burnt out, and not be functioning normally as I see in those demonstrations;d. one could not be interacting freely with conductive metal objects while having an essentially powerful electricity generator inside the body – enough to light a garden variety light bulb at that and e. lightning, which is a powerful source of atmospheric electricity, would be killing thousands of COVID-vaccinated people daily – especially since they do not carry thunder/lightning protectors with them. Finally, please notethat in this age of digital photography, holograms and ultra-realistic simulations anything can be made to appear real. Do not be fooled. We are no longer in the age of analogue photography, when what you saw was how it really was!!!!!!!!”Onyeaghowulukaagbalu”.( the person who is fooled or deceived has lost the game). I have had the viral particle-based AstraZeneca vaccine as primary in Nigeria, and the mRNA-based Pfizer vaccine as my booster in USA (the so-called mix and match vaccination approach) with no adverse effect whatsoever – other than very transient mild tenderness at the injection sites for 2 or 3 days, no different from what I experience with my annual flu vaccinations. Nothing to add because as we say in academia, The Prof has spoken!
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