President of the Nigerian Infectious Diseases So­ciety (NIDS), Prof. Dimie Ogoina, has reacted to the death of Chief Ladi Williams, a senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who died of COVID-19 on Sunday, despite taking the two jabs of COVID-19 vaccine.

Ogoina, who is also a Profes­sor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Niger Delta Universi­ty and Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Bayelsa State, said,

“We need to be sure that COVID-19 is the direct cause of death. In the concept of the direct cause of death, you can have two or more concom­itant diseases at the same time. For instance, you could have COVID-19, diabetes, hyperten­sion, and some other diseases. That you have COVID-19 does not mean that it is COVID-19 that actually killed one, it could be diabetes or hypertension or something else that killed one, it is just a coincidence that one had COVID-19.”

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According to the don, “The second thing is that when you vaccinate someone, there is nothing that provides 100 per­cent proof. Vaccines do not pro­vide 100 percent protection. If you look at the clinical trials for the Pfizer vaccine for instance, it is 97 percent efficacy, which means that for every 100 per­sons, there are three persons that may not be protected.

“This because is when you give someone a vaccine, it is like any other drug, sometimes people take anti-malaria drugs and they may not feel fine, they would have to take something else. The same thing applies to vaccines, you may vaccinate 100 persons, 97 of them may feel well, three may not neces­sarily feel well. This is because either gene are different, or their immune system is differ­ent or their body does not take the vaccine. It is not because the vaccine is bad but there is something peculiar about that person that makes the vaccine not work effectively.

“The benefit of vaccines is not necessarily the protection it offers to the individual. Of course, it offers protection to the individual, but the protection it offers the population, so a large number of people are protect­ed if you vaccinate. In addition, people can be protected, not ev­erybody. I have just given you a typical example with malaria, so also polio, children get polio vaccine but a few of them devel­op polio, and it is for this same reason, maybe their gene or immune systems that make the vaccine not work. So it should not stop people from taking the vaccine, because the benefits far outweigh the risk and there are minimal risks and it protects the population,” he added.