By Suzan Khainza
Tuli Wawelu! This must be the one single most used phrase in Kampala since 24th January 2022 when the country was fully opened up after almost two years of horrendous on and off lockdowns and a myriad of restrictions.
After almost two years of crippled businesses, closed schools and limited access to psychosocial facilities like worship places, it is only right that the opening up has been met with unbridled excitement and great fervor.
The entertainment scene has been wild with theme nights, bars playing non-stop music and concerts happening within days of each other; church goers are exhilarated at resuming full capacity physical gatherings; parents are more than relieved that their children are back in school; shops, supermarkets and eating places can now stay open till late; boda-bodas can finally work without playing cat and mouse with LDUs: in summary, life – as we knew it before 2020 seems to be back.
The only dark cloud that still hangs over this newfound elation is the revelation that Uganda’s state minister for trade has introduced an amendment to the Public Health Act that would punish those who refuse to be vaccinated with fines and jail time of up to four years.
Although COVID-19 is not specifically mentioned, it is more than clear that it is the motivation for the introduction of this amendment. In essence, the state minister seeks to legalize mandatory vaccination for all Ugandans whenever the government so deems fit.
The pertinent question now is; judging by all that has happened in the past two years, is mandatory vaccination really warranted?
At the start and during the pandemic, the Uganda government, blindly following measures taken by European countries, imposed harsh lockdowns that saw many Ugandans lose their livelihoods, an increase in mental health breakdowns and several school going girls raped, impregnated or married off – a problem that the president simply dismissed as “at least they are live. Pregnancy doesn’t kill.”
A recently published John Hopkins University Study found that lockdowns only prevented 0.2% of Covid deaths and were “not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic”.
I presume that this percentage is much lower in Uganda given that the lockdowns seemed to have been discriminately applied.
The authors of the study recommended that in future, lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument. In light of such information which some Ugandans presented before the onset of these lockdowns but was dismissed as misinformation, are there any compensations for those that were negatively affected by what turned out to be a nearly useless measure? No.
Despite the fray of activity that has been ongoing these past weeks,according to the ministry of health, as of 17th February 2022, Uganda had a cumulative total of 162,901 Covid-19 positive cases out of a population of 48 million.
Of these there were 99,759 confirmed cumulative recoveries with only 87 active cases admitted at health facilities. Do these statistics, indicating such a high recovery rate, warrant mandatory vaccination?
Given that there has been a number of reported vaccine side effects worldwide including myocarditis, who will be held responsible should such issues arise after enforcing mandatory vaccination?
It has been proven that the vaccines neither prevent transmission nor infection, what then is the rationale in claiming that the unvaccinated are a danger?
In addition, there are several studies showing the waning effectivity of the different vaccines over a period of less than a year which has resulted in some countries administering as many as four doses of the vaccine.
At what point then, will one consider themselves fully vaccinated? Where does that leave natural immunity which, given our statistics, seems to actually be working?
With several countries such as the UK, Denmark, Sweden lifting all Covid-19 restrictions and ending vaccine mandates, why is the government insisting on mandatory vaccination? In matters of one’s health, one has the prerogative to choose; what will happen to this fundamental liberty?
It is then increasingly clear that mandatory Covid-19 vaccination is more about control than it is about health. Whereas vaccination has its benefits, it should be completely voluntary. It is no wonder that these vaccines come with a consent form.
The government should not infringe on her citizen’s right to choose what is best for their health. Frankly, there are far more pressing issues in Uganda’s health sector than mandatory covid-19 vaccination.
