‘There is covid and then there is covid long-haulers syndrome for a select few whom covid just doesn’t want to leave alone. Some have committed suicide; others are physically and/or mentally impaired or incapacitated. It can last for a year or more’ This is a dreadful message from Dr Azubike Ezeife, a US based townsman, friend, medic; one who fought and overcame Coro. Those who have ears, let them hear! Those who do not want to believe, let them not believe!
My last Coro-related intervention was on 25/3/21. The long break was not because Coro had been vanquished or because I was tired of my coro-watching activities; it was because of the reasons I had explained earlier in this column. The GREATEST Coro news all over the globe is that I have been doubly jabbed, on 10/5/21 and 24/6/21, both at OOU Health Center. It was reported on all the first-class global news channels like the NTA. I registered for the vaccination when the National Primary Healthcare Agency opened the portal and immediately received a vaccine code of NG-LA54278098EJ on 3/3/21 and that was the last I heard from them.
Read Also: COVID-19 through the eyes of widows
When the OOU Health Services asked those who wanted to be jabbed to ‘appear in person’, I seized the opportunity with both hands and on the appointed day (10/5/21), I got there an hour in advance. The vaccinators, were also late and so, I ended up waiting for about 2 hours. I managed the 2 hours as I usually did (there is always something to read). Given the controversies surrounding the vaccines, I had expected the health officials to counsel us, assure us, advise us on what to do and what not to do, post-jab, how to report any adverse effect and so on. But they just took my details and the serious-looking old-school nurse just punctured my left arm with the tiny needle and said ‘next’! It was on 20/6/21, (6 weeks after the jab) that I was asked to fill a form for program planning and implementation. So, when and how did NPHCDA obtain the data that 10027 Nigerians experienced AEFI (Adverse Events Following Immunization) with Kaduna coming first ( 1070) as at 31/5/21? At least, they did not ask me, and many others like me.
I left the venue and contrary to the strange stories making the rounds, I did not feel anything unusual. It was when I posted the picture of my second jab in one platform that a friend noticed that the nurse had no hand-glove. I checked the picture of the first jab and it was unfortunately the same. Why now? Anyway, that day (24/6/21) a video was circulated of a man, who reported that a bulb ‘caught fire’ when he placed it at the jab-point and so one of my friends asked me to confirm if it was true. I was initially worried. What if it was true? But I never believed such stories and so, I performed the experiment and…nothing-nothing. I reported the outcome of my experiment but another acquaintance retorted that as a lecturer, I was a ‘government pikin’ and as such, he was not surprised that I supported the ‘government position’. I got somebody else to witness, photograph and video the experiment and still, no-nothing. Another friend then argued that I did not move the bulb around while another said jocularly that I might have used an Igbo-Ukwu made bulb! I asked the Chief naysayer to come with his own camera& bulb so that like Thomas, he would eye-mark and believe and that was where that stopped. This happened on June 24 & 26. On 3/7/21, an Ibadan basedMrs Ebele Umeh had her second jab and also performed her own experiment with a spoon and again, nothing-nothing. As it was in my case, some people also attacked her, saying she used a longer spoon, that she was using her hand to support the spoon and all that.
On 17/5/21, The Reuters Fact-Check Team delivered a false verdict on these weird post-jab stories. Among others, they relied on medical professionals from Meedan Health Desk who declared authoritatively that ‘The amount of metal that would need to be in a vaccine for it to attract a magnet would be much more substantial than what could be present in a small-dose vaccinee’. Prof Coey of School of Physics, Trinity College, Doblin also described the claim as ‘complete nonsense’ because ‘one needs about 1 gram of iron metal to attract and support magnet at an injection site’. Well, people will believe what they want to believe but why are people, all over the globe, willing to believe EVERYTHING negative about Coro: the numbers, the treatment and vaccines? Medical psychologists and health communication experts may need to investigate this.
But it is NOT uhuru once one is doubly-jabbed! The NPHCDA has directed that even after the second dose, one should continue to mask-up, observe physical distancing, wash hands regularly and avoid crowded gatherings. But there have been several post-vaccination cases. In Massachusetts, 3791 out of the 3.7m vaccinated had been re-coronised as at 2/6/21. This is 1%, but even if it is .0001%, those afflicted are still human beings. In the US, as a whole, at least 10,000 were re-coronised after vaccination as at April. People have also died after being vaccinated as in the case of Tanya Smith of Plymouth, who suffered from blood clot after taking AstraZeneca. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency also reported 332 cases of these very rare blood clots and 58 deaths. Meanwhile, Israel has become the first country to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating all adults above 18; China has administered 681m doses as at 1/6/21 while Romania has started vaccinating 12-15 year olds just as WHO has warned that we would not be safe unless we achieved 70% vaccination. Israeli scientists have also seen a probable link between Pfizer vaccine and myocarditis (heart inflammation ) cases, especially in young people.
I know you will be wondering what vaccination has to do with billionaires. Well, as Osadebe would say, ‘Osondi, owendi’ (as some are celebrating, others are mourning). Despites the painful deaths, indescribable socio-economic catastrophe and trauma caused by Oga-Coro and despite the associated controversies, vaccines and vaccination have created 9 new $-Billionaires, with combined wealth of $19.3bn (as at May) greater that what it will cost to vaccinate poorest countries of the world. These vaccine billionaires are Stephen Bancel, CEO Moderna ($4.3bn), Ugur Sahin, CEO BioNTech ($4bn) Timothey Springer, founding investor, Moderna, ($2.2bn); Noubar Afeyan, Charman, Moderna ($1.9bn); Juan Lopez-Belmonte, Chairman of Rovi( a firm manufacturing and packaging Moderna vaccine), $1.8bn; Robert Langer(Founding Investor, Moderna);$1.6bn; Zhu Tao; Co-Founder, CanSino Biologics( $1.3bn) Qui Dongxu and Mao Huihua( both Snr VPs at CanSino Biologicsworth $1bn apiece. It is noteworthy that Moderna was mostly powered with public funds. I am not surprised because even during the Biafran war, with people dying at the warfront and at home, with all the destructions and uncertainties, many people became millionaires(Though I don’t know what happened to their millions after the infamous £20 policy!
Other Matters: Mama Ayoka Adesanya & Entrepreneurship: Till Death does us part
Every day, I hear our young and not so young compatriots echoing Gunners for Life, as a way of restating their support for one of these foreign football clubs. May be, that is where I got this title for, except that this time, I am discussing the serious issue of entrepreneurship. For Mama Ayoka Adesanya, 80+, entrepreneurship is her life and she is an entrepreneur for life. Every morning, I would always hear a shrill voice announcing the arrival of Iya-ogi (the woman selling pap). This is either as I am in my room upstairs or on my way to or from my morning walk-outs. When you see her, you will immediately notice a yawning gap between the frail owner of the voice and the sharp, strong voice itself. After observing her for years, I decided to arrange an interview with her, for which I had to engage an interpreter. I wanted to find out why she is still at it at this advanced age and how she manages the consequential physical stress.
The Eighty-something year old Mama started this business when she was 20 (at least 60 years ago) and since then, she would process the pap in the evening and then leave as early as possible the following morning, so as to serve her customers before they left for work or business. This is under the rain, harmattan or whatever. While she has some regular customers, whose houses she would visit, there are one-off customers who would patronise her as she announced her merchandise along the road.
I learnt from my interpreter that she has some well-to do offspring and so, I asked her why she wouldn’t retire and reap the fruits of her labour rather than is stressing herself at this stage and she replied that she would continue with this business until the bell rings! And when I asked why, she said it has become a part of her life and she cannot imagine just waking up and idling away. From my estimates this cheerful Mama wakes up around 5am and covers about 10 kilometers daily. With that physical exercise regimen, I believe she still has a long way to go. So help her God. As I write this in the early morning of 6/7/21, I still heard her sharp voice: Ogireeo
