Doctors Striking During A Pandemic Is Very Wrong – Osagie Ehanire

Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire has come out to say that medical consultants and corps members have been mobilised to step in amid doctors strike.

He recently revealed this at a press briefing, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, it is very wrong for doctors to embark on a strike during a vulnerable period when only one or two percent of eligible Nigerians have received the coronavirus vaccine.

He added that the pandemic the world is currently battling is like a war, so it should be treated as such henceforth.

His words, “Although the resident doctors have gone on strike, and as I said before, we are appealing to them not to use this very vulnerable period when the country is facing a war.”

“For those of you who have been very keenly following international news, you know the havoc that the Delta variant did in India, and what it has done and it is doing in Indonesia, Ireland, and other countries.”

“We have only one or two percent of eligible Nigerians vaccinated. So we are really facing something like a war. When you face a war, that is not the time that soldiers say they are not going to fight.”

“We don’t want to see here, what happened in India where they also lost 400,000 lives due to COVID-19 Delta strain, we don’t want that.”

“But even then, during this strike, we have mobilised all consultants and youth corpers and all those who render services to ensure they are rendering service, to ensure that the hospital services do not collapse and everybody is doing very well.”

“I salute the consultants and youths corpers and all those who are not on strike, who are giving service and also the private sector who are supporting us. The private sector is rising up to the challenge to make sure that health services, one way or the order, are going on and there is not serious distress in the hospitals.”