Nigerian professor of virology, Oyewale Tomori, has faulted claims by Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State on the usage of anti-bodies of survivors of COVID-19 to create a vaccine for the disease.
Tomori posited that Ayade’s solutions were contradictory.
Ayade, in a trending video, had said that the government could use the serum of those, who had recovered from COVID-19 to produce the vaccine.
No he’s not.
Ben Ayade said PCR is unreliable & shouldnt be used for diagnosis but even a lab technician let alone a microbiologist knows that’s such a big lie.
Like someone here once said, “okoto riddled with big words might sound intelligent until u hear the meow at the end.” https://t.co/0n4gyn1Q3L
— Adunni Achebe (@_Adadioramma) April 28, 2020
The Cross River governor obtained a doctorate in Environmental Microbiology from the University of Ibadan.
Ayade said, “It is not vaccines, it is healthy living. I am talking from a sound intellectual and scientific background. There is no vaccine today; there is no established approved international treatment protocol.
“However, those people who have recovered, why don’t you go and take their serum. If they have recovered, they now have the antibodies against the virus, take their serum, do a synthesis of their serum based on electrophoresis and synthesise and mass-produce the vaccine.”
Tomori described Ayade’s recommendations as “bullshit”. 
He said, “On Ayade, he started by saying it is not vaccine (that is the problem) and ended up by saying ‘make vaccines from the serum’.
“He speaks from both sides of his double mouth. Then he says PCR is not reliable for diagnosis…sorry to use such a word as bullshit.”
Tomori, also a former Vice Chancellor of Redeemer’s University, said Nigeria had the human resources but lacks the enabling environment to come up with a vaccine at this time.
He added, “We have the human resources but we do not have the basic enabling environment – regular power supply, water supply, appropriate communication technology.
“Research institutes in the country operate on the ever-dwindling annual budget which is irregularly disbursed and often spent with opaque accountability.”
