BALTIMORE – As the COVID-19 Omicron and Delta variants are rapidly spreading around the world amidst increasing vaccine hesitancy in many communities, an infectious disease scientist, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, M.D., has been delivering an encouraging vaccination awareness message with a simple religious flavor in many communities where vaccines hesitancy is still a problem.
Addressing the problem of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy at a Baltimore community awareness program, Dr. Nyan strongly implored the audience to practice what he described as the “Four Commandments of COVID-19 Prevention” and that taking a “Mix-Match of the COVID-19 vaccination boosters is possible.” He said the vaccines are safe, effective, free, and can save lives.
“To break the transmission and end this pandemic, we must practice the Four Commandments of COVID-19 Prevention, that is, 1. Thou Shall Get Vaccinated and Boosted; 2. Thou Shall Wear Your Mask; 3. Thou Shall Wash Your Hands; and 4. Thou Shall Keep your Social-Physical Distance,” Dr. Nyan emphasized.
He explained that factors responsible for the vaccine hesitancy are: “the lack of knowledge about the vaccines [even among some healthcare workers], lack of accurate information and awareness, refusal of some top government officials to take the vaccine, and false information being circulating on the internet by anti-vaccine campaigners.”
Dr. Nyan, one of the world’s top US-based infectious diseases experts from Africa, first delivered his “Four Commandments of COVID-19 Prevention” public health sermon at a mixed ethnic community church in the State of Indiana in July of this year and recently at the People’s Community Lutheran Church in Baltimore. A video clip of the message has since been circulating on various social media.
“I want to thank you for your Four Commandments of COVID-19 Prevention; I will share them with my friends,” a community advocate acknowledged as she posed a question about eligibility for booster shots and underlying health conditions.
In response, the infectious disease doctor making reference to regulations of the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) regulations, said that “all adults and children 16 years and older irrespective of underlying health conditions are eligible to take the [appropriate] COVID-19 Boosters vaccination.”
He further stated that, “clinical scientific studies have demonstrated that you can now mix and match COVID-19 vaccines; if you took Pfizer-BioNTech, you can take Moderna as your booster; if you took Moderna, you can take Pfizer-BioNTech as your booster; if you took AstraZeneca [in Liberia and other African countries and elsewhere], you can take either Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson-n-Johnson as your booster.”
Dr. Nyan, the inventor of a US-patented multiplex diagnostic test for infectious diseases and who is also the 2017 winner of the Africa Innovation Award Special Prize, said that the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters can protect against infection, severe disease, hospitalization and death in addition to wearing of mask, washing of hands, and maintaining social-physical distance.
He also urged parents to vaccines their children who are 5 years and older with the emergency-approved Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric COVID-19 vaccine.
The COVID-19 Delta and Omicron variants are now the major cause of infection, hospitalization and death mainly among unvaccinated persons. Studies have shown that infection with Delta variant leads to sever infection, while Omicron is more transmissible with mild symptoms if vaccinated. While Africa remains largely unaffected, COVID-19 infection in Europe and the United States has spiked again.
The NIH-trained infectious diseases scientist “urged African governments to commit substantial financial resources to the production of vaccines and testing kits by African scientists so as to vaccinate our population and prepare for a more deadly COVID-19 variant that could cause havoc on the African continent in the future,” Dr. Nyan concluded.
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