Botswana has been rolling out vaccines and getting them into the arms of citizens for months now. The latest statistics show that 34.4% of Batswana have so far received one dose and 16.9% are fully vaccinated. The country aspires to vaccinate 1.5 million people, and really, we do need to cross a threshold of over 70% if we are to reach enough herd immunity to eventually evict this terrible disease from our personal lives, from our communities, and from within the borders of our country.
We have overcome some of the worst challenges confronting our national vaccination program; vaccine supplies are improving; we have vaccination sites in place and of late, there is talk of an experimental ‘Drive Through Sites’; in fact, a whole physical infrastructure of vaccine distribution and administration in place.
The remaining and most pressing problem now is human attitude and behaviour. What should be done to keep the vaccination campaign and momentum going, gathering pace and propelling the whole country to defeating Covid-19? How many Batswana are willing to come forward to be vaccinated? What should be done with those who refuse to be vaccinated? Should there be any vaccination exceptions?
What are the arguments for, and against, mandatory vaccination?
I think we must start having this conversation now as a people and as a nation. I love the fact that these public health debates coincide with broader national arguments about the review of the constitution of Botswana. I do hope Batswana would tie up both arguments and help us all build a better country for ourselves.
But, first the essentials. If Batswana do not come forward in numbers large enough to vaccinate and reach population immunity, what should government do?
Let’s start with common sense.
Successful mass vaccination will bring closer the opportunities for open travel and economic freedom opening up markets (All markets; political market, job market, finance and investment, education and tourism.) Our economy cannot recover, or gain any traction in sustainable recovery without open freedoms in markets. Second, official preoccupation with the coronavirus spreading, infections and Covid-19 hospitalizations has already severely disrupted national health services.
Who wants this situation to worsen?
The sooner, and better, we vaccinate the nation the more health services we release for people with chronic conditions, those who need surgery, prenatal clinics, and vaccinations against other diseases. Batswana are losing lives to preventable diseases and deaths because just about all official fiscal attention and responsibility are laser-like focused on fighting this pandemic.
We must also note and emphasize the point that pandemic conditions have bred terrible anxiety, depression and mental health issues that will take years to contain, heal and eliminate. The whole nation is traumatized; ordinary Batswana, nurses, doctors, households and communities that lost loves ones to Covid-19.
Do we want this situation to continue?
What about the increasing numbers of orphans, children who are losing parents, primary care providers and grandparents who usually provide support, love, safety, security and social warmth to our children throughout all the years of early childhood development and growth? We must accept that unattended mental illness has severe consequences for everyone in society.
Even before this pandemic Botswana was not doing great in mental health. Can people imagine the consequences for human dignity, employment, productivity, and public safety should we live with this pandemic condition for another two or more years? Let’s not forget mental illness also affect children’s chances of success at school through radical disruptions of household security, family lives and community social networks and safety nets.
Then we have the problem of profits and jobs.
Don’t we all want to start seeing business life returning to the high streets, the informal economy, tourism ventures, mines, public transport and rural farms, ploughing fields and cattle posts?
Mass vaccination will open the economy, drive down infections and increase defence against wanton virus spreading. It will open up all these opportunities and possibilities for resilient recovery and sustainable post-pandemic democratic stability and prosperity.
We should worry that levels and conditions of poverty and inequality are worsening. That national infrastructure and other public goods are daily degrading and, in some cases, collapsing for lack of maintenance, investments and economic functionality. That large portions of the middle class are falling into poverty as well, and that at a time when prices are rising everywhere, wages are stagnant, utilities, levies and rents are going up.
I don’t even want to mention the collapse of administrative efficiencies across the entire national economy and public life. These are strong arguments for mandatory vaccination. People worry about rights, personal choices, freedoms, ethics and privacy.
But let’s not forget that the debate about mandatory vaccination belongs to politics, and public authority, as much as it does to the constitution. Behind the constitution is to be found the moral authority of citizens and the human voice and spirit of republicanism; the heart and soul of the nation, and all the grandeur of human struggles and suffering.
There really isn’t any reasonable expectation that majoritarian consensus (I think we will vaccinate more than 50% by December, and worry about the journey from there to 75%) on vaccination should give way to the voices of the few among us who think otherwise.
No disrespect intended, but only the authority of science and rigorous religious exception should be admitted to the defence of those who do not want to be vaccinated.
Everyone else must queue up and get vaccinated. It’s for the good of the nation, and future of the country.
