James Mugeni. Courtesy/File photo.
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Last Updated on: 16th March 2021, 03:35 pm
“Uganda has had a very bad approach to the Covid-19 that no one is certain of the data so generated on Covid-19,” Mr James William Mugeni.
Kampala – 16, March 2021: In his recent “outlook” on Covid-19 vaccination, Dr Paul Kasenene highlighted key issues, among them the “necessity of Covid-19 vaccination”.
“As we prepare to commence the Covid-19 vaccination process, let’s take a moment and reflect on the necessity of these vaccines,” he wrote, last recently.
Dr Kasenene, in the same “outlook” Covid-19 calls it “not a debate about whether vaccines, in general, are good or bad”. “If you are looking for that discussion, you could as well stop reading here. I am not against vaccines. Some vaccines have been beneficial to society. I do advocate for vaccination, but only where necessary,” he added.
“Let’s think about our own need for vaccines and the larger vaccination strategy as a country or continent. Here is why I discuss this.”
“Vaccines were thought to be the key to ending this pandemic when it started in early 2020. But does this hold true one year later? At the start of the pandemic, it was thought the world would have millions of deaths and that Africa, due to inadequate healthcare systems, would have even more –with dead bodies lining the streets.”
He added: “At the time, vaccines were thought to be our best way to end this pandemic. The plan was to produce 7 billion vaccines quickly, literally for everyone.”
What we all want to see is a reduction in the spread of Covid-19 and, ultimately, prevention of death. This is best achieved through obtaining and development of immunity against the virus. Getting to “herd immunity” is actually the real goal.
‘Herd immunity’, also known as ‘population immunity’, is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or through immunity developed through infection with the disease pathogen in mention.
So, herd immunity can be achieved in two ways. First, through vaccination.
Second, as a result of a large number of people having already been infected by the disease you want to prevent.
At the beginning of the pandemic, he says, experts warned that we should avoid the latter scenario because it was thought that it would come at the cost of mass death.
But… think about this… “Is it possible that some developing countries like Uganda have already experienced a degree of herd immunity from rapid community spread of Covid-19?”
In all honesty, Dr Kasenene says prevention measures like wearing masks or social distancing were often ignored or sometimes not even possible.
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“I think a survey to assess for potential herd immunity should be the next step since we already see a significant drop in new cases of Covid-19. Keep in mind at the beginning of the pandemic; no one was expecting a herd immunity possibility due to community infections.”
In India, for example, just like in Uganda, they have seen a rapid drop in cases. Epidemiologists have said the development of herd immunity is the likely reason. They found in some places, 6 in 10 people had already been infected with the virus. If herd immunity has already occurred, then vaccination has to be re-evaluated (not necessarily abandoned).
Mr James Mugeni William, a Medical Clinical Officer, also a Certified Public Manager based in the United States of America says, “I said we need to have the medical people take the lead and people thought Dr Kasenene submission and I am like why are people not teaming up with him”.
“If I look at the quality we were given in America I would not take that vaccine from Uganda led by quacks,” he added.
“The Covid-19 vaccines have been said to be safe, effective and high quality by WHO. That is not being disputed. However, we must point out that: the safety data is limited. We can only have data for about six months.”
He says some vaccines were approved with two only months of safety data. Safe does not mean no side effects. In fact, there have been some serious side effects such as anaphylaxis in vaccine recipients.
“The health of the people is part of national security in the USA. Typically, you would expect the health of Ugandans to be part of national security. We are very proud of a regional army but our health care system is rotting away,” he says.
Very many countries in the developed world are rejecting a vaccine that seems to “be dumped in Uganda” as termed by President Museveni’s critic, Mr Mugeni.
“A vaccine that Museveni himself is not ready to take. We already had a shouting headline of a 2 million US dollar corporation or sponsorship on this vaccine. Who is responsible for the eventual side effects of this vaccine whose side effects are yet to be known?”
“Uganda has had a very bad approach to the Covid-19 that no one is certain of the data so generated on Covid-19.”
“Covid-19 was used as a political tool to suppress the people. Who can be reliable on now this crucial issue on the vaccine? Not the minister of health she dipped in politics and seeing videos of her taking the first shot turned into a fake is another negative reaction from the people,” Mr Mugeni notes.
