Vaccine politics and its impact on Zimbabweans

WITH new technologies and the evolution of medical science in the 21st century, the Covid-19 vaccine was developed faster than vaccines for previous pandemics and epidemics.

Vaccine nationalism, where some governments signed agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers to supply their own populations with vaccines before they had become available to other countries, has led to the politicisation of Covid-19 vaccines.

With several vaccine options available, public confidence in the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine has, however, become heavily dependent on the political context in which the approved vaccines are distributed.

Recently, the EU has welcomed vaccinated tourists from within the bloc and from the US, but not those from countries with certificates for vaccines that are not among those that have received EU marketing authorisation.

The Covid-19 vaccine has become the symbolic totem of a new form of political power. In Africa, European actors, through the Covax facility, have politicised the vaccine as they try to show their benevolence towards Africa while reaping soft power diplomatic benefits in return. Covax, launched in April last year in response to the pandemic, is co-led by CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), Gavi (the international Vaccine Alliance) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Emergency Fund. Covax co-ordinates international resources to enable lowto-middle-income countries equitable access to Covid-19 tests, therapies and vaccines.

The WHO has approved Oxford– AstraZeneca, Pfizer–BioNTech, Moderna, Sinopharm, Sinovac and Janssen vaccines for emergency use. These can be distributed as part of Covax. In South Africa, the WHO and its Covax partners are working with a consortium to establish South Africa’s first Covid mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub and to scale up production and access to Covid-19 vaccines.

In Zimbabwe, the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines from China, Sputnik V from Russia and Covaxin from India are the only vaccines being administered. The first batch of Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines arrived through a coup of diplomacy on a chartered Air Zimbabwe flight.

Amid shortages of the donated vaccines from China, the government of Zimbabwe turned down a donation of three million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine while Zimbabweans protested about a shortage of Covid-19 vaccines as the country awaits more doses from China. Government critics have pointed to politics as the reason.

In correspondence sent to the African Export-Import Bank, which is managing funding for the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust programme for the AU and has secured doses from several suppliers, Zimbabwe’s government said it was analysing possible side effects of the Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and was not yet ready to participate in next month’s allocation of the vaccines as measures were being put in place to establish the cold chain management framework for the vaccines. `Contrary to this, the Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights reported that Johnson & Johnson vaccines were stored at the same temperatures as China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, which Zimbabwe has been using since February this year. The cold chain mechanisms to store vaccines at 2ºC to 8ºC, at which Johnson & Johnson is supposed to be stored, are in place. In addition, the vaccine is administered as a one-off dose, therefore the cost of rolling out that vaccine is far less than that of the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines which are administered as two doses.

Independent political and economic commentator in Harare Rejoice Ngwenya said it was a tragedy that poor relations between Zimbabwe and Britain were the reason the Zimbabwean government was rejecting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and that the diplomatic tiff had been allowed to interfere in a situation where citizens of the country were under threat. He urged the government to desist from politicising vaccination, to ensure that the safety and security of citizens.

Many Zimbabweans have expressed suspicion and mistrust of the vaccines and about China’s motives, with some claiming that China has economic and political interests to expand and exploit resources in the country. Others have claimed that China is well known for sending substandard goods to Africa.

Another common argument is that Covid-19 is not present in the rural areas, therefore people do not need to get vaccinated but instead take indigenous herbs and treatments that have proven to be sufficient. More conspiracy theories have been circulated on social media that Covid-19 is an illness of the urban rich and powerful and therefore that section of the population should receive the vaccines.

While many governments have been persuading people to get vaccinated, Zimbabwe’s president warned those who chose not to get vaccinated that there would come a time when unvaccinated citizens would be unable to get jobs and be forbidden from boarding buses.

A researcher at International Media Support, a group focused on debunking false information, said the president’s message would invoke fears that the government had weaponised Covid-19. The message coming across as vaccination is compulsory for all citizens, suits the trends of dictatorship Vaccination is important but one’s decision to receive it must be a result of public awareness and confidence building, not threats. Among the country’s citizens, there are groups who may not opt for vaccination for cultural or religious reasons and their rights must be respected.