The United States Mission in Nigeria has recognised a Nigerian doctor, Onyema Ogbuagu for his excellent work in the field of medicine.
Commenting on Dr. Ogbuagu’s contribution to the breakthrough in Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, the Mission in a Twitter message submitted that, “Nigerians contribute to the world in so many ways”.
Dr. Ogbuagu is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease at Yale School of Medicine. He is the Director of the HIV Clinical Trials Programme of the Yale AIDS Programme, Section of Infectious Diseases of the Yale School of Medicine.
In a historical development that could very well define his career, the Nigerian-born Ogbuagu is among the lead researchers developing the Pfizer vaccine.
The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised. Pfizer was quoted as saying it would be able to supply 50 million doses by the end of 2020, and around 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.
Ogbuagu has spent his career investigating some of the world’s most pervasive infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and Ebola, just to name a couple.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Ogbuagu’s ground-breaking research in the field of modified genetic code has catapulted him into the public eye, as he is one of the brains behind the research at Pfizer for the world’s first effective Covid-19 vaccine.
Some of the fastest vaccines ever developed took at least four years. However, scientists are now racing to develop one for Covid-19 under a year.
Dozens of research teams around the world are working to develop a Covid-19 vaccine using a mix of established techniques and new technologies.
Funding for a vaccine has never been greater, with billions of dollars pouring in from around the world to make a product that could help to control the pandemic.
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Dr. Ogbuagu graduated with a degree in Medicine from the University of Calabar in 2003, then migrated to the U.S and rose to become Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease Specialist at Yale University.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
