A consultant neurosurgeon has warned that growing vaccine hesitancy, driven largely by misinformation and the erosion of public trust during the COVID-19 pandemic, is fuelling the return of preventable diseases across the world.
Dr. Teddy Totimeh, speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday, April 23, 2026, said the pandemic created fertile ground for doubt about immunisation by combining genuine uncertainty with an explosion of conspiracy theories and inconsistent public health messaging. He noted that routine vaccination programmes were also disrupted as movement restrictions, fear of infection and supply chain problems reduced hospital visits and cut access to vaccines during the critical years of the outbreak.
He described the consequence as a measurable regression in immunisation coverage, with multiple countries recording declining rates since the pandemic. That decline, he said, is directly linked to the re-emergence of diseases previously considered under control, including measles outbreaks now occurring in parts of the world that had largely eliminated the virus.
“The science tells the story. If we trust it, we reduce suspicion and protect lives,” he said.
Dr. Totimeh pointed to Ghana’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), launched in 1978, as evidence of what sustained vaccination effort can achieve. He cited data showing that measles once generated tens of thousands of cases annually in Ghana during the 1970s, but at its best coverage periods the country recorded fewer than 50 cases in a year. The near-elimination of polio, he said, further illustrates the long-term power of consistent immunisation.
He explained the mechanism of vaccines using an accessible analogy, describing how introducing part of an infectious organism to the immune system effectively trains the body to recognise and respond rapidly to a real infection before it takes hold.
Despite the setbacks caused by the pandemic, Dr. Totimeh said the scientific record on vaccine effectiveness remains strong, pointing to the speed with which global responses contained diseases such as Ebola and mpox as recent demonstrations of what the technology can do.
His warning extended to wealthy nations, noting that even high-income countries have seen outbreaks of measles and meningitis traced back to gaps in vaccination coverage, underscoring that hesitancy is not a problem confined to lower-income settings.
Dr. Totimeh urged parents to complete childhood immunisation schedules in full and to maintain regular attendance at well-child clinics, where Ghana’s health system tracks vaccination records. He identified missed clinic visits, particularly in the months after a child’s early infancy, as a key contributor to coverage gaps.
