The silent torture of mandatory vaccination

While physical torture incidents are currently considered as the obvious form of torture, ordinary Ugandans are currently tortured by a bill that was tabled before Parliament that seeks to make vaccination mandatory. Previously, vaccination was voluntary and the government invested in sensitization to convince the public about its benefits. In fact, at the onset of the Covid19 vaccination process, the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, assured the nation that vaccination would be voluntary and that all those that acquiesce to this decision would have to consent through consent form signing.

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A few weeks down the road, with just a memo by the Ministry of Health, the consenting process was scrapped. But why is the government enacting a law on mandatory vaccination that contradicts medical ethics?

With technology, the public now has access to medical information nearly as much as the health professionals. This goes to show that even the medical consent by patients is currently influenced by access to medical information rather than medics themselves. It should be noted that the power of decision making in the health systems has recently shifted from the doctor to the patient themselves in this regard. In that context, many are being tortured by the possibility of taking on a vaccine without full information about how it works.

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The Ministry of Health is not helping either. It is absurd that Ugandans lack even the basic education from the Ministry of Health on how these particular mRNA vaccines work. At vaccination points, rarely is information given about what to expect, or the kinds of conditions where sufferers should not receive the vaccine.

It is more disturbing that previously held knowledge about immunity and vaccine functioning is portrayed as having changed. For example, a recent 2021 study titled “Immunological memory to SARS-Cov-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection,” evidence shows that the Covid19’s antibodies (Memory B cells and CD4 cells) remain higher after 8 months of infection. This explains the role which natural immunity is playing as an alternative measure to curb the massive spread of Covid19 variants among nations with high unvaccinated populations like Uganda. However, the role that natural immunity plays, seems not to be regarded any more.

Besides natural immunity, there are complementary and alternative solutions to dealing with the disease such as herbal remedies. These have been so pivotal and successful in ensuring that the greatest percentage of Ugandans remains alive and strong during the pandemic.

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World Health Organization data shows that 80 percent of nations in Africa use alternative/traditional medicine for primary health care. This is mostly because the conventional or western medical system is still gaining ground in Africa. In such a situation, tabling a law on mandatory vaccination cannot be the solution to curbing the spread of Covid-19 disease. With the availability of all these alternative solutions, many feel it is indirect torture to force them into mandatory vaccination yet they have alternative measures to dealing with illness.

Moreso, Uganda as a nation still has a lot of gaps in her health system which need to be strengthened. These include weaknesses in health financing, human resources, medical equipment and administration, among others. These are just a snapshot exposing our burdened health system which needs strengthening before the Ministry of health can ask legislators to back the campaign of mandatory vaccination with a law.

While politicians may like the idea of mandatory vaccination because it seems to give a quick answer to the Covid19 problem, vaccination is not the silver bullet. This has been proven in the past two years of the pandemic. Evidence shows that the vaccinated are still being infected with the virus.

The former Leader of Opposition, Winnie Kiiza, couldn’t have put it better at a virtual Town Hall meeting some time back. She left her audience speechless when she mentioned losing two fully vaccinated relatives to Covid19.

The government has therefore not been truthful in defending the proposed law on mandatory vaccination by claiming that the unvaccinated were a threat to the vaccinated.

Chris Mwanje is a complementary and alternative medical specialist (CAM, ND). [email protected]