“Expand vaccination centers to schools & marketplaces” Toks Asher Young

Lagos based music business executive, author and youth ambassador Toks Asher Young has called on the government, federal and state to expand vaccination sites around the country. He said with the recent discovery of the Covid 19 variant Omicron, it has become more imperative that as many people as possible get fully vaccinated.

Toks who made this call in a telephone conversation with our reporter, said the only way to ensure more people get vaccinated isn’t restrictions or banning travel, but by increasing and expanding vaccination sites around the nation.

He said that restrictions and travel bans being reinstated by several countries around the world won’t solve anything but will further alienate people and countries from each other. “This will affect tourism and related businesses around the world”, he noted.

Young explained if vaccination centers are expanded to include marketplaces, schools, parks and even bus stops it will make it more accessible to everyone, especially artisans who may not know how to go about registering to receive the shot and in turn increase the number of people who are vaccinated.

“It will also enable anyone who wants to get a shot to do so with minimal stress. Until at least 80% of the Nigerian population is fully vaccinated, the country cannot attain herd immunity, and this means the virus will keep spreading and also mutating” he added.

“The only way to achieve a long term solution is by making certain poorer countries get enough vaccines through direct donations from countries or via the COVAX initiative.”

Asher said that instead of commending the brilliance and transparency of the team of South African scientists who discovered the new variant, the western nations are now rushing to ban flights and visitors from the southern African region. “While vaccine inequality is making it difficult for some nations to give her citizens the first shot, some richer nations are already mandating booster shots for all their citizens over the age of 18 years” he said.

Tochukwu pleaded with the Federal and state governments to increase sensitization and public awareness campaigns to help fight hesitancy, inform people of the various vaccinations centers and also eliminate conspiracy theories surrounding Covid 19 vaccines. Finally, He urged the richer and more industrialized countries to donate their excess vaccines to other poorer ones instead of allowing them expire or go to waste in storage.

Toks Young Umezulike aka ‘Toks Asher Young’ a YOUTH AMBASSADOR, he is also the author of DEUCES: An Anthology of WORDS, RHYMES & POEMS.