The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., has criticized Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, for his comments on the withdrawal of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

He argued that the health ministry should be transparent with Ghanaians, acknowledging that the vaccine's withdrawal is due to identified side effects, not commercial reasons.

Pratt insisted that Dr. Kuma-Aboagye and his team should focus on developing strategies to mitigate the side effects experienced by vaccinated individuals, rather than offering unnecessary justifications.

Speaking on Peace FM's Kokrokoo Morning Show and monitored by GhanaWeb, the veteran journalist rebuked the health ministry over the vaccine's withdrawal.

"Those of us compelled to get vaccinated now face a medical risk. The ministry should be informing us about countermeasures for the side effects to prevent fatalities. The claim that the withdrawal is for commercial, not medical, reasons is unacceptable.

"A superior vaccine constitutes a medical rationale. They must provide us with credible information, or we will be justifiably upset. They forced the whole population to take the vaccine, now they're giving us irrelevant explanations," he fumed.

These comments follow the Ghana Health Service's (GHS) justification for removing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, attributing it to commercial, rather than medical concerns.

At a press conference during the COVID-19 Vaccination and Child Health Promotion Week/African Vaccination Week Campaign in Accra's Ga East Municipality, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye clarified that the decision was based on commercial considerations, with superior vaccines in the market making AstraZeneca non-competitive.

"They are withdrawing for commercial reasons in the sense that there are superior vaccines in the market, and so if you are in a market and you will not be able to compete, why produce something when others will go for some other brand?" citinewsroom.com reported him as having said.

Watch the video below"



SB/AE