The Ghana catholic Bishops Conference has called on catholic priests and all Catholics across the country to avail themselves for Covid-19 vaccination. In a statement signed by the president of GCBC, Most Reverend Philip Naameh, the conference urged members of the Catholic Church and Ghanaians in general not to under estimate the relevance of the vaccines but rather take it to protect themselves.
Portions of the statement reads: “We, the members of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference and your Shepherds, send you prayerful greetings of the Season as we prepare spiritually and physically to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. With the arrival of the first consignment of 600,000 vaccines in our country and more expected later, we wish to encourage our priests, consecrated men and women and all Christ’s faithful, and indeed every Ghanaian, to avail themselves of the opportunity to be vaccinated”.
“ COVID-19 has come to stay with us and we do not have enough time to study and understand the virus because the longer we take to understand it and find ways to protect ourselves, the greater the opportunity that we give to the virus to further mutate/change to our disadvantage. We have experienced success with vaccines in the past with diseases such as smallpox, measles, polio, influenza and other diseases and so we are convinced that vaccines could be the answer to the COVID-19 pandemic despite the concerns raised by anti-vaccine groups and other groups who advocate otherwise”.
The statement further added that, “To be able to fight the pandemic and arrest further mutation of the virus, all countries must work together to manage the disease. In light of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations and countries advocated risk pooling and opportunities for countries to use their local facilities to test and assess these vaccines for safety and efficacy”.
“Manufacturers of these vaccines have also been compelled to make transparent and available real-time information and data about the manufacturing processes and products for public education and information. The Conference is, therefore, convinced and confident that all national bodies set up to test, assess and monitor vaccines, drugs and other products for consumption have done due diligence and understand the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines and the implications of undertaking a nation-wide vaccination”.
The statement also reminded the Christian community about how long they have prayed to have a vaccine for the virus, stating that the arrival of the vaccine is a prayer answer. They have therefore urged everyone to come out boldly to get themselves vaccinated.
“It is our fervent prayer and hope that many of you will avail yourselves for this exercise since we cannot coerce anybody to do so”.
Source:Zaaradio.com/99.3fm/Jonas Biawurbi