Page 24 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 14
P. 24

Leadership
          Health & Healing
















































               Vaccine Hesitancy



                               – The Pfizer Kano Case


          Vaccine distrust is one legacy of unethical Big Pharma practices in Nigeria

                                 Written by Mahdi Garba and Modupe Abidakun
                                               Edited by Mercy Abang



          This article was first published on 12th   “It’s strange that I still remember   her son with a speech and hearing
          July, 2021 in:                     everything, even the color of the   impairment.
          https://unbiasthenews.org          nurse’s uniform. There was a white   “My son was six years old then. He
                                             nurse who was in a brown skirt     was ill and when I saw the symp-
          In Kano State, Nigeria, vaccine hesitancy   and green blouse, who directed the   toms: fever and headache, they
          is not only driven by conspiracy theories or   Nigerian nurse to give him three   looked like meningitis,” she tells
          mistrust in science. As health advocates   injections at a time and he did   Unbias the News. “So, I took him to
          struggle to fight disinformation about the   exactly that while my son was on my   a clinic– Asibitin Zana–where on ar-
          COVID-19 vaccines, it is important to   shoulders,” says Maryam*, speaking   rival I saw a host of Nigerian nurses
          remember that in some countries distrust   in the local Hausa dialect.   alongside other white people”.
          stems not only from ignorance, but also
          from lived experience.             The mother of now 28-year-old Za-  “Immediately after receiving the
                                             kari, Hajiya Maryam, recounts how   drugs, he became unconscious for
                                             the Pfizer drug test in Kano left   hours. On waking up, I noticed that



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