Its seems everything has been on course in the fight against Corona virus and that has been indicated by the current statistics on the table. We have so far been recording the lowest numbers in terms of infections and deaths. But the worry is that while other countries are going down, our statistics are literally shooting to the skies. It is so sad to realise that the country is currently reaping the results of the partying that happened over the Christmas holidays. Young people did everything to party under the influence of alcohol. Farms in the countryside became their places of refuge. It is unfortunate that it is now the elderly who are dying in numbers because of the chill parties we had in December.
In a democracy government is often working under pressure with regard to what the electorates want versus what is right for the country. I think that is just what the government has done now with the opening up of the sale of alcohol. It is my honest opinion that we should have waited until we are done with vaccination. We all know that waters of mortality have cost us a great deal during the HIV pandemic and those are lessons learnt.
Definitely government is not oozing with confidence when it comes to the issues of the vaccine. The first thing that needed to have been put in place is a PR network that educates and acts against misinformation. That is what is lacking and the public is just left to the vices of nature when it comes to information that generates confidence in the choice of vaccines.
Before we can single out any vaccine, there has always been a problem with vaccination programs around the world. The polio vaccination in particular has faced a lot of challenges in countries such as Pakistan and Nigeria. Misinformation reigned here and the public was made to believe that the vaccine was a smoke screen for a population control exercise.
The government has done several vaccination programs in the past such as polio, smallpox and tetanus. The strategy has been very simple in that new-born were targeted through the clinic schemes which included a feeding program on the side. It is in fact the feeding scheme that has made the vaccination programs run smoothly. This makes Botswana children the most vaccinated around the world.
For months now the infant feeding scheme in the clinics is failing because someone in the ministry is not doing their job. Food that is rationed in the clinics has not been coming for almost a year in certain clinics in Kweneng District. In the meantime, the food has reached its expiry date while still held in the warehouses. The evidence on this has been overwhelming at the Gamodubu Landfill.
This is the first time that the government will be doing mass vaccination on the adult population. It’s been smooth sailing with the infant program at the clinics but now we are going to be playing a totally different ballgame with the adult population.
The pandemic has hit us at a time when globalization is at its peak and information and misinformation can be running on parallel lines on the back of technology. This is why there is need for a strong PR exercise to project the truth about vaccination.
But we see a lot of lack of confidence coming from the very frontline workers who are supposed to be ahead in the queue for a jab. Our healthcare workers have for good reasons been pressurising the government to bring along the vaccine. The vaccine is here and they are now speaking in forked tongues. The real issue here it seems is the country of origin of the vaccine.
Through their body, Botswana Doctors Union issued a statement this week which clearly highlights their misgivings on the efficacy of the drug. The doctors are now urging government to divert the priority to giving the newly arrived Covishield (a product of Astra Zeneca) to the elderly. The doctors are citing reasons that the elderly population is more in need of protection instead of the young and healthy doctors. It is the same doctors that have been pleading with government for vaccination and all of a sudden they have earned immunity to Covid-19 to a point where they would rather wait at the back of the queue. This is hypocrisy at its epitome.
The United States is currently sitting on a large stockpile of the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine and they are still not agreeing on whether they should release their stocks to other countries that desperately need it.
Germany and several other European Union countries have suspended the use of the Astra Zeneca vaccines under concerns that it is attributed to causing blood clots on patients. This is the only reason they have halted it. I am not a doctor but it defies my limited knowledge on why they are no prescribing it with blood thinners as a solution to the problem.
In Germany, seven deaths have been attributed to this vaccine out of a population of a little over 1.7 million which has received the vaccine. This is clearly worth the risk but I hope it will not be me being the sacrificial lamb when vaccination happens in Botswana. Europe is reportedly sitting with stocks of this vaccine numbering around 8 million and this could be our lifeline in this country. The UK has already vaccinated more than half of its population with the same vaccine and they are already seeing significant drop in Covid deaths.
One thing is certain here, the longer we will be vacillating and hesitating, more lives are going to be lost to Covid-19 far worse than what would befall us as deaths caused by the side effects of the vaccine. We need not listen to dooms day proponents in this case.
