Investigate hesitancy before issuing vaccine mandates

From the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of directives have been issued by those in power-nationally and globally-regarding how the population needs to conduct itself to contain the virus. We had lockdowns and Covid-19 testing at entry points in different countries plus the following up of cases through contact tracing. Standard operating procedures like social distancing and masks have now become a part of life.

In all this mayhem, vaccination was hyped to be the silver bullet that would contain the spread of the virus and help us get our lives back. In fact, the vaccines were rushed to the market with emergency use authorisation (EMA) for a grace period of two years, which will be ending soon by the way, so that the disease would be quickly suppressed without further ado.

In Uganda, the vaccination campaign kicked off with sensitisation about the benefits of the process and a commitment to allow citizens to vaccinate voluntarily. Unfortunately, uptake of the free vaccines was not as expected. The population wasn’t hearkening to the vaccination message as quickly as had been anticipated.

At this point, the Ugandan government was expected to investigate the reasons behind people’s hesitancy and address these accordingly through massive sensitisation. Instead, mandates, coercion and threats have been issued to the public in different forms to enforce vaccination compliance. Government is busy tightening bolts around access to services and tying it to vaccination status. Only the vaccinated with proof, can now access certain places and offices.

But these directives are in opposition to prevailing research which shows that both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated can catch Covid-19, can spread it and can die from it. Of course, the rates differ in favour of the vaccinated. The difference, however, isn’t that pronounced to warrant the kind of threats and obsession being directed towards getting the whole country vaccinated to a point where they are considered threats to security. How do you explain the various district entry points that were being manned, until the prime minister came in, by security to prevent the unvaccinated from moving?

At a certain point, district authorities in Amuru indicated that salaries of health workers would be blocked if they did not get vaccinated. However, the president of Uganda Medical Association (UMA), Dr Richard Idro, moved in and indicated that the association would seek legal redress against any such forceful means directed towards health workers. He emphasised voluntary vaccination. Government has since given up its military approach of bullying the national health work force into mandatory vaccination

While health workers were able to fight for their rights to undertake vaccination with their full consent, teachers and other employees in several organisations and government departments, are getting this freedom abused without any voice to speak on their behalf. The parliamentarians vehemently and successfully battled the powers that be, about two months ago, when the directive was introduced. However, the MPs have not actively stood with the affected citizenry on this matter.

In a recent speech, the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, among many things, pointed out that the country will be tightening controls against the falsification of vaccination cards. In the same speech, she also mentioned that soon, a vaccination card will be required from every Ugandan who intends to use public transport. But before government continues to blindly force these vaccines on the masses, the questions they should be asking are, why have health workers and parliamentarians resisted vaccination? Why are people not willing to be vaccinated to the point of falsifying vaccination documents? If this question is not satisfactorily answered, all gains made, even in the vaccination of children might be lost. 

By Agnes K. Namaganda

[email protected]