By Bill W. Cooper
The United States government has extolled the Liberian government for its role played in containing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Ministry of Health has done a remarkable job containing the spread of COVID-19. We also appreciate all of the hard work that healthcare workers have done across the country to help distribute the vaccine,” US Ambassador Michael McCarthy said.
Addressing a news conference yesterday at his Embassy, the US Diplomat disclosed that Liberia and the US are now coming out of the fourth wave of the virus, which he said is a great news, and noted, “Hopefully, it is the last wave, but we simply do not know that yet.”
“What we do know is that vaccines are our best tools to try to make that a reality. They are safe, effective, and, I am proud to say, they are readily available here,” Amb. McCarthy maintained.
The US envoy further revealed that the United States government is proud to support Liberia’s efforts to protect all Liberians against the COVID-19, as such, they have to date, donated nearly 900,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines to Liberia, both the one-shot J&J vaccines and the two-shot Pfizer vaccines.
Additionally, the US Ambassador explained, “We have held our own vaccination drives in partnership with the Ministry of Health, and our colleagues from the Peace Corps Liberia have led drives in Kakata, Ganta, and starting today, West Point.”
According to him, they have over the last years; trained thousands of Liberian healthcare workers as means to help deliver the jab in primary care facilities across the country.
He explained further that they have also worked with Liberian partners to train more than 200 community health assistants and volunteers intended to educate the Liberian public about the COVID-19 and how it can be prevented.
“And we have helped fund social media, radio, television, and print campaigns to counter misinformation and encourage people to get vaccinated, as I have also seen a few good articles about the effort so far,” he stated.
“So, I urge you all, however, not to let the story move to the backburner. Because to date, more than one million Liberians are fully vaccinated and that is good news but there are many more Liberians eligible to take the COVID-19 vaccine that still have not been vaccinated,” he said.
Amb. McCarthy further emphasized, “You all have the power to spread the good news about vaccine availability, its impressive safety record, and its incredible effectiveness. This would be a great help to get the rest of the country on board.”
Meanwhile, Ambassador McCarthy has at the same time encouraged authorities of the Ministry of Health to put more readily available information to help the Liberian media in its reporting about the virus in the country.
“They could look to telecommunications partnerships to deliver vaccine promotion messages through mobile phone apps and SMS messages among others,” he noted.
Ambassador McCarthy averred, “As I said at the beginning, let’s us all continue to work together to end this pandemic once and for all. We all have our parts to play. So, let’s get to the finish-line together.”