After one and half years of fighting covid19 we are still using emergency tactics over prolonged periods and have failed to build sustainable programs for long term self sustainable response at a decentralised level. The two opposing opinions from science experts are still at war globally with Uganda joining the majority to vote on the opinion of prioritise early mass vaccination as the ultimate solution, against testing and treatment infrastructure first. To the ordinary man the difference is non existent, but to policy makers globally it has become a world war of interpreting the science facts.
When we were younger we were promised that all we had to do to prosper in life and get financial independence was to study hard in school for a good academic certificate or degree, which would be the password to freedom and happiness. But after you have been through school you realise that it was not entire true and for many almost a hoax because they had to start all over again to fight for their survival, learn market place skills as though their academic certificate could not make them immunise them from unemployment and wealth creation. It has disappointed many who found the uneducated employed in business and advanced in market place skills, who sometimes employed them. This has not stopped the cycle from continuing that the same people complain about academic certificates being irrelevant but send their children for the same certificate because everyone is doing it but not because of the promised immunity it promises to offer. However those who obtained academic certificates before 1980s were guaranteed employment almost immediately, just like Vaccines developed against killer diseases before the 1980s guaranteed that people would never get infected again even by new variants of the same virus.
Today seeing how people vaccinated against covid are also getting sick and some dying with new covid variants, ( https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15260747third-patients-died-indian-delta-variant-both-jabs/) Which reminds me of how some people (not all) who trusted in academic certificates as meant to immunise them against unemployment, are also vulnerable to get employment or start successful businesses in the ever changing marketplace. The huge investment made in academic education system where students are lockeddown in schools and under home curfews to keep them away from getting infected by the marketplace world contamination, well knowing that academics will not guarantee their protection from poverty and unemployment, yet promoted as a mandatory necessity for life, is similar to the response to covid19 globally. You will not hear WHO nor the National Covid Taskforce promoting free testing and free early treatment after so much evidence that SOPs and vaccines are easily compromised leading to many unnecessary deaths, because infections from the real-world are inevitable. WHO in a statement explaining why most nations had suspended use of Astrozene vaccine, (
https://www.who.int/news/item/17-03-2021-who-statement-on-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-safety-signals) , advised governments to investigate their own vaccine population effects, but defended the vaccine as not necessarily being unsafe.
The WHO had promised the world if only we can get everybody locked down and only open up economies after everybody is vaccinated, then we shall all get back to normal and defeat the pandemic causing virus permanently, like vaccines did before the 1980s, but the new covid variants have frustrated that promise leaving entire populations which are vaccinated exposed and disappointed that the war is not yet over. In record unprecedented time, covid vaccines were produced, tested, approved and distributed in less than one year starting with Europe and America, and about 30% of the rest of the world in the next 6 months. Although this world record breaking covid vaccines are still at trial stage and no body knows the long term effects on human health, they have been unanimously promoted as gospel truth to be the only ultimate final blow to the covid virus, which approach has undermined the unavoidable need for free testing and early treatment response capabilities around the world. Donors gave developing nations billions in the first wave to implement mandatory restrictions of curfew, lockdown, masks, sanitizing, social distancing (SOPs) and media campaign to flatten the curve but did not support free testing and treatment which remained expensive through out the developing world. Worst case scenario is that someone will get covid infections even by mistake and will need testing and treatment to prevent death, but assuming the ideal that preventing or slowing down the spread will be perfect, was very absurd and professionally questionable given the experience Ministry of Health has in fighting epidemics without lockdowns for many years. Europe and america who are dictating the vaccines first agenda have not fought epidermics in more than 70years, and yet Africa has been at this almost every three years in the tropics where outbreaks are common.
There was a belief in 2020 that in order to prevent hospitals from being congested we had to focus on preventing the spread or slowing down infection rates yet after every month, statistics kept showing that treatment was controlling the pandemic much better without donor funding because 99.9% of cases recovered mostly without going to hospital. After 6 months this shutdown, SOPs and curfews should have been changed in order to allow herd natural immunity based on available threat assessments, but Africa surrendered all logical reasoning to wait for vaccines and is still begging for more vaccines after seeing its loopholes.
The major danger of a vaccine based focused policy is that it does not help a nation to invest in it health infrastructure systems, health human resource capacities to respond rapidly at a decentralised level and does not support manufacturing capacity for essentials that save life such as free testing kits, treatment medicines and oxygen supply. The western and eastern economic powers that need SOPs can afford curfews and lockdowns because poverty is not a problem and they have surplus funds to give their unemployed for years, yet developing countries cannot afford such radical measures but are forced to do so in order to protect the developed nations from getting re-infected , if they don’t handle covid like a developed economy would. A Vaccines based responses builds foreign economies of western world and helps to protect their healthcare systems which are not familiar with frequent epidemic outbreaks like resilient Africa has learned to live with and manage successfully. If the infections were limited to infecting Africa like HIV/AIDS and Ebola, then the developed nations would not be dictating economic lockdowns and uniformity of SOPs on Africa because they would feel safe if they just close their borders to Africa. Yet focus on building treatment capacities in Africa not only save lives in danger but will also provide natural immunity as a substitute for vaccination, empowering Africa to focus on expanding healthcare services, medicine factories and a level of capacity to respond to future virus threats independently and quickly.
Nations that prioritise vaccines do so because their population is not resistant to frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases, unlike in poor developing nations. When the vaccination started in UK, India, South Africa and Uganda immediately new variants of covid outbreaks emerged which were more infectious and more deadly. But no body in media or politics cares to connect the vaccination to new variants although their research test results on vaccines officially claim that vaccinated people can spread new variants or similar covid infections. The new covid variants not only made the unvaccinated sick but also made the vaccinated sick indiscriminately, as though being vaccinated could not ultimately protect as promised, therefore necessitating mandatory SOPs all over again. Imagine if a new covid19 variant emerged every three months, whether from vaccines or from India, will you indefinitely continue to shut down the social economic system for the next 5 years? Again with the new crisis of rampant deaths and for the first time hospitals getting congested, officials called on the public to get vaccinated quickly to avoid dying as well, without focusing on free frequent testing and early treatment.
One wonders why a top health official of Uganda, in response to the crisis did not call for support in free decentralised testing, nor subsidised treatment solutions to save lives, but begged donors for more vaccines as she spoke to CNN. When you have 60,000 infection cases, vaccinating them does not save them but treatment will and if they can be testing was being done rapidly many unknown cases would be discovered and handled before they get to hospital. The logic is very surprising that no body still believes that detecting the infection early and treating early will save more lives from death, than giving them a vaccine jab in the middle of an emergency crisis. Blaming and threatening the public on TV for laxity on SOPs never saves lives but decentralised counselling services when testing and treating will help inspire SOP compliance voluntarily. Infact cost of treatment in small health centers, shot up to over $1000 per patient and testing costs went above $100 but govt did not ask any donor to subsidise the cost of testing and treatment like it did for the more leathal HIV/AIDS which Ugandas accessed for free for decades. The number of daily free HIV/AIDS tests and treatment have not yet been surpassed by the number of costly Covid tests and treatment , but common sense has still failed to save the situation.
One health official mentioned that the govt plan is to vaccinate everybody, and if we provide free testing and treatment then there will be very few deaths, which will make vaccinating irrelevant , yet the WHO wants all citizens to get covid vaccination certificates. There will not be grants and loans for any govt which saves lives with early testing, rapid treatment response and subsequent natural immunity, because people who have recovered from covid19 should not be vaccinated. Uganda’s govt was made to believe that with vaccines, every body will be protected from new variants only recently to realise that not only are the vaccinated spreading the new variants but they are also getting sick and dying from new infections. It is understandable because “nobody” really knew what would happen after being vaccinated, which is why efficacy of the vaccines is set at 60% with both WHO and pharmaceutical not responsible for the deaths. Govt had started vaccinating first the health workers, teachers , soldiers and public servants and has now seen majority of deaths coming from the same category of people vaccinated first including health workers, civil servants, and those they interacted with from the public.
It is not known how future covid variants will affect vaccinated people, to either make the vaccination irrelevant or detrimental to the overall natural immunity of the body to adjust to new threats. We also not sure whether we are dealing with a natural virus or an artificial lab created virus, which finding would explain further the sustainability of the vaccines to protect from future variants. Yet a treatment based response would educate local research and save lives quickly as we observe the long term effects of the vaccines on Europeans and Americans before we confirm their safety for use in developing nations.
Just like academic certificates have been based on obsolete knowledge from Europe consequently failing to protect Africans from new market variants causing unemployment and poverty, vaccine certificates used to work for many old infections but most recent infections in Africa don’t yet have vaccines after over 40years and yet have been contained with testing and treatment. Africa should wake up and start using their own experiences, context and circumstances to decide the future of their biosecurity and public health with a salt of independence before dependence on vaccines becomes perpetual liability which could undermine local sovereignty.
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