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We join the rest of the world to celebrate Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu, the Nigerian medical doctor, who led the Pfizer trial for the coronavirus vaccine in the United States. Ogbuagu was part of a team of researchers for Pfizer/BioNTech, which developed a vaccine against COVID-19 with 95 per cent efficacy. The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries with no safety concerns raised. Pfizer, according to reports, has the capacity to supply 50 million doses of the vaccine by the end of 2020, and around 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.
Following Pfizer’s feat, another US-based pharmaceutical company, Moderna Inc, also produced a COVID-19 vaccine with 94.5 per cent effective and no significant safety concerns. The development shows much hope in the quest to tackle the pandemic. Since the outbreak of the disease in China in 2019 and the subsequent spread to other parts of the world, scientists have worked tirelessly to find a vaccine that would prevent it.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the pandemic has led to many deaths across worldwide. It has also presented an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and job security. The global agency added that the economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating as tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty. The number of undernourished people, which currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year.
There is no doubt that the informal economy workers are the hardest hit because most of them lack social protection and access to quality health care and have lost access to productive assets. Without the means to earn an income during lockdowns, many of them were unable to feed themselves and their families. Nigerians are not spared the impacts of the pandemic, which have exposed the inadequacy of our health sector.
The feat by Pfizer is a major breakthrough in the search for the cure for the pandemic. Ogbuagu’s role in the development of the vaccine is particularly heartwarming. It comes at a time Nigeria is desperately in need of role models from the younger generation. It is an achievement not just for Ogbuagu and his family but also for Nigeria, Africa and the world.
It is commendable that the United States Embassy in Nigeria and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) have joined other respected bodies and individuals to laud Ogbuagu for being part of the success story. “Nigerians contribute to the world in so many ways. Our hats off to Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu at Yale who helped develop a COVID-19 vaccine,” the US embassy stated.
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Ogbuagu is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Yale University. His clinical responsibilities include educating and training medical students, residents, and infectious diseases fellows in various capacities in inpatient and outpatient settings; and through structured course work and other teaching sessions.
For five years, Ogbuagu has been the Director of the Yale AIDS Programme HIV clinical trials programme, and a principal investigator on numerous pharmacokinetic, phase 2 and 3 safety and efficacy trials of novel antiviral compounds (HIV).
Ogbuagu is the son of former Vice Chancellor of Abia State University, Prof. Chibuzo Ogbuagu, and erstwhile secretary to the Abia State Government. His mother, Stella, is a Professor of Sociology. He was born in the United States of America while his parents were studying for their doctorates in Yale. Ogbuagu studied Medicine at the University of Calabar in 2003, did his internship at the Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, before proceeding to Yale University for further studies, where he currently teaches and leads groundbreaking research.
He has led several researches in the US and Africa, including working in the faculty of the human resources for health programme in Rwanda where he mentored medical residents and junior faculty in clinical research projects locally relevant in addressing important infectious diseases-related problems, particularly HIV/AIDS and antimicrobial resistance. He has also worked at the Liberia College of Physicians and Surgeons (LCPS).
We congratulate Ogbuagu and wish him more productive years ahead. Let the government create enabling environment for other Nigerian youths to actualise their dreams.
