Health Cabinet Secretary Mr Mutahi Kagwe has expressed reservations about the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine that is being developed by US drug company Pfizer.
On Monday, the pharmaceutical company announced that its vaccine candidate was 90 percent effective in preventing people from getting coronavirus.
But speaking on Wednesday when he appeared before the National Assembly Health Committee, the Health CS said he had his doubts about the vaccine.
He said: “I am told that this vaccine is supposed to stop you from getting the virus. They have tested, I don’t know how many people and has stopped them from getting the virus.”
He went on: “I know of somebody who shares a bedroom with somebody who is positive and the person does not have the virus. My question is this, how do they know that I was going to get the virus? But that is a story for another day. Perhaps I will be educated and not ask silly questions later on the matter.”
Although Pfizer has said that the vaccine was 90 percent effective, the company is still waiting for safety data, which will have to be signed off by regulators before the vaccine can go into mass production.
“There are several vaccines now that have been announced all over the world. But, there are some that are being withdrawn because of the side effects,” he said.
Several weeks ago, Astra Zeneca, another company that is developing a Covid-19 vaccine, halted the process after a recipient of the trial vaccine developed side effects.
It, however, restarted the process after it ascertained that the effects were not caused by the vaccine.
Mr Kagwe noted that besides the Astra Zeneca’s vaccine, “a Chinese one was being withdrawn yesterday”.
“We are watching the situation and wondering. We also have ours that is being tested by the Kemri Wellcome Trust,” he said.
Despite the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation having warned against nationalisation of Covid-19 vaccines, the Health CS wondered whether third world countries like Kenya will access them in good time.
“Obviously, that is easier said than done. The UK has already preordered some 30 million doses from Pfizer for trial. It is going to be a challenge for poor countries, but hopefully, we will overcome it with our own budgets and budgetary support,” he said.
The world is anxiously waiting for a vaccine to tame the Covid-19 pandemic, which has so far killed 1.27 million people globally.
There have been 51.6 million reported positive cases with 33.6 million of them having been declared healed.
Mr Kagwe also said that the rapid test kits are not a panacea for Covid-19 testing in the country because they are expensive and some of them are ineffective.
