TheCable

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appointed Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian professor of virology, as a member of its technical advisory group on COVID-19 vaccine composition.

The WHO announced the appointment in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Tomori was a former vice-chancellor of Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun state.

The WHO said the technical advisory group would periodically assess the impact of the variants of concerns on vaccines.

“The group will elaborate on decision-making processes, trigger for such decision making, and stakeholder roles and responsibilities,” the statement reads.

“Following discussions, the executive director of WHO recognises the need to establish Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition to make recommendations to WHO on the methods to assess the impact of the variants of concerns on vaccines.

“The director also recognises the need to provide interpretation of available evidence on the effect of variants of concerns on vaccines, including but not limited to vaccine effectiveness and recommend to WHO, for each COVID-19 vaccine platform, adaptations (if any) needed so that vaccines continue to safely provide WHO-recommended levels of protection against variants of concerns.”

Some other members of the group include Supamit Chunsuttiwat, advisor, department of disease control, ministry of public health, Thailand; Cheryl Cohen, a professor of epidemiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; and Thomas Fleming, member of the scientific steering committee for the WHO solidarity COVID-19 vaccines trial.