During an appearance on GhanaWeb TV’s current affairs program, The Lowdown, Hassan Ayariga, the founder of the All People’s Congress (APC) and a two-time presidential candidate, made a claim that the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, did not take the coronavirus vaccine.
Instead, Ayariga claimed the president was injected with a malaria vaccine.
Verdict: The claim is completely FALSE
Explanation:
After Ghana, on February 24, 2021, became the first African country to receive some 600,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines from the COVID-19 Vaccines Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC) facility, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on March 1, 2021, announced in a tweet that, “On Monday, 1st March 2021, my beautiful Rebecca and I were at the 37 Military Hospital to take the COVID-19 vaccine publicly. The vaccine is safe, and it will help protect us against the impact of COVID-19 on our health.”
This followed an advertised public event of the president taking the first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine, along with his wife as well as Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his spouse, Samira Bawumia and other government officials.
The event, which was telecast LIVE on all major news outlets, saw the president and his spouse, the First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, taking their jabs at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.
On Monday, 1st March 2021, my beautiful Rebecca and I were at the 37 Military Hospital to take the COVID-19 vaccine publicly. The vaccine is safe, and it will help protect us against the impact of COVID-19 on our health. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/4MVXOioOIo
Besides, GhanaWeb reported earlier that the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) kicked against conspiracy theories that suggested that there were plans to inject the president with water instead of the AstraZeneca vaccines.
According to the Association, it is unthinkable for anyone to suggest that the President was injected with water while the rest of the populace was injected with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Frank Ankobea, President of the Ghana Medical Association, in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show expressed: “What I can assure everyone is that it is the same vaccine that is being given to everyone. How is it possible that some will be injected with water while some receive the vaccine? That would imply that the vaccines aren’t safe. But such a thing will never happen. I am assuring Ghanaians that will never happen. No one will have that mindset to inject the leaders with water. It is never true. Ghana Medical Association won’t sit down for a thing like that to happen. People are speaking without basis”.
Conclusion:
It is the conclusion of the GhanaWeb Factcheck team that the claims made by Hassan Ayariga that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took a malaria vaccine instead of the coronavirus vaccine is completely FALSE.
