The United States has recognised a Nigerian medical expert, Dr Onyema Ogbuagbu, on his contributions to the development of Covid-19 vaccine by Pfizer in the US.
Ogbuagbu, has been recognised as one of the key figures in the research that led the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, to develop the first effective Covid-19 vaccine in the US.
The US Mission Nigeria, had, on Monday, via its social media accounts, commended Oguagbu, for the role he played on the development of the coronavirus vaccine by Pfizer.
“Nigerians contribute to the world in so many ways. Our hats off to Dr. Onyema Ogbuagbu at Yale who helped develop a COVID-19 vaccine!” The US Mission Nigeria wrote on its Twitter and Facebook pages.
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The US-based pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, had developed a Covid-19 vaccine said to have attained 90% effectiveness against coronavirus.
Onyema, had recently revealed to ABC News, that massive distribution of the vaccine is expected to take off in the first quarter of 2021.
“I think those of us involved in the trials are really super excited by the results that were really quite unexpected… we quite expected that the vaccines should at least have more that 50% efficacy, which is what the FDA set as bar. But it’s just so heart warming that vaccines have been too effective, and it’s great because having a very effective vaccine would help us achieve the so called immunity which would mean that if we have enough people who receive the vaccine and are protected against the virus, this would really be the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
“Obviously there are insufficient doses for everyone like has been mentioned already and we’re hoping that as we start to phase in, the vaccine and also to have more doses in the first quarte of 2021 that that might mean really, the pandemic ending,” Ogbuagbu said.
Ogbuagbu, who graduated in 2003 from the University of Calabar, in Nigeria, with a Bachelor’s degree in medicine, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease Specialist at Yale School of Medicine.
