A professor of virology, Oyewale Tomori, has dismissed the idea that the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines will affect the herd immunity of Nigerians.

Tomori, in an interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, said it would be difficult to determine the percentage of Nigerians with herd immunity of COVID-19.

He said, “Advising Nigerians against taking  COVID-19 vaccine is totally wrong; it is creating more problems for our people. Getting a vaccine does not destroy herd immunity, otherwise, why would we be vaccinating our children several times for polio?

“The normal standard of vaccine is that when you are exposed to something before and you get that thing again, it boosts your immunity. It is called anamnestic reaction; your body reacts and produces more antibodies.

“There is no figure of what is the herd immunity in Nigeria now for COVID-19. It has not been studied here. In other parts of the world where the herd immunity had been studied in relation to COVID-19, it was not more than 20 to 30 per cent of the population. In Mozambique and Kenya, it was less than 20 per cent and they were testing different groups of people. It is not true that COVID-19 vaccine will destroy herd immunity.”

The PUNCH had on Wednesday spoke with two virologists, Rosemary Audu and Sunday Omilabu who cautioned against the introduction of the vaccine to Nigerians, arguing that the immunity of the people may be enough to fight the virus.