Barely 24 hours after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State and his Deputy Obafemi Hamzat took the shots of the COVID-19 vaccine to mark the commencement of vaccination exercise in the state, some recipients of the jabs have begun to express concerns over the vaccines’ reaction on them.
The state government, while urging residents to take the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, had said the jab has no side effects. The government had said that there was no reason for anyone to panic over the desirability of the inoculant, while urging frontline workers enrolled in priority list to take shots of the vaccine within stipulated period.
Sanwo-Olu had specifically urged the public to refrain from churning out unsubstantiated information about the vaccine, asking residents to allow the science lead the nation out of the pandemic. But some residents, especially those categorised as front-liners and on those essential duties, who have taken the jabs, said they noticed some changes in their body system.
While some said they felt feverish in addition to the pains on the harm where the vaccine was administered, others complained of the general body pains in addition to feeling dizzy. In his article titled: “A’hellish’ night with Astra- Zeneca vaccine: A reporter’s experience”, the Editor of a popular of online newspaper, Mr Kazeem Ugbodaga, narrated how he had a sleepless night few hours after he received the jab.
He said: “I worked late on Friday night and decided to go to bed around past 1.00am. I was already feeling pains that I had not felt before. Shortly I hit the bed, sleep vanished, I was praying, ‘Lord, give me sleep.’
My prayer was answered and I slept. I was rudely jolted out of sleep few minutes later with serious shivering I never felt before. I took the bed sheet and wrapped myself in, but I was shaking like a leaf. “Asides the shivering, internal temperature set in. My whole system was aflame, I woke up my wife and said ‘dear, touch my body, is it hot?’ She said ‘no.’ “But I could feel a hell of flame within me.
The temperature was accompanied with sharp body pains. I could not sleep, pains, temperature, headache and chill set in. Later in the night, the internal temperature found its way out, my body was hot outside. I held my wife and she screamed because of how hot my body was. I had a hellish night, sleep later came early in the morning, I slept till past 1.00pm on Saturday, but the headache and pains didn’t disappear but the temperature was gone”
Others who spoke with Sunday Telegraph expressed similar experience, wondering why it was not in the first place revealed that such experiences were normal as part of the regular effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On his part, a journalist of a popular Television Station, who pleaded anonymity, said that he experienced pains all over his body but when he read some facts about the vaccines, he realized it was normal.
Meanwhile, allaying the fears of the vaccine during the commencement of the vaccination at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, the state’s Health Commissioner, Prof. Abayomi said the federal and the state governments had inspected data associated with vaccinations around the world, including the clinical trials of all COVID-19 vaccines to ensure that they are safe for use in the country after approval by the WHO. He stressed that the risk of not receiving the vaccine was higher than the chance of taking ill from COVID-19.
He said: “We are encouraging all Lagosians and Nigerians by extension to see the period of vaccination as an opportunity to achieve herd immunity and build collective capacity as a community to resist the transmission of an infectious agent across our communities.
If we are able to achieve herd immunity in Lagos and other communities, then we will be able to reduce the chance of the virus from propagating itself and developing variants.”