The Tanzanian government has recently issued statements warning the public to be vigilant against all infectious diseases, and to wash hands and wear masks when necessary.
And as the world scrambles to get vaccines against Covid-19, Tanzania’s deputy health minister Dr Godwin Mollel said last week that they are not against Covid-19 vaccines per se, but monitor their long-term effects.
Most of the currently available Covid-19 vaccines have been developed using mRNA technology that international health experts say has a 95 percent effectiveness rate in preventing severe disease and mortality of Covid-19.
These include those made by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in collaboration with Oxford University of England and US-based Pfizer Inc. in partnership with BioNtech in Germany. All of these are now at different levels of supply to African countries under the Covax subsidy facility.
Although Tanzania was initially among 92 low- and middle-income countries that were to benefit from the Covax scheme, President John Magufuli urged Tanzanians to rely on herbal remedies local as a steam inhalation to promote immunity against the virus.
Although Tanzania President Magufuli announced a free Covid-19 in June last year, the rate of recent deaths from “respiratory obstruction” in the population, including top political officials and governments – Zanzibar vice-president Seif Shariff Hamad semi-independent and head of presidential secretary John Kijazi – have urged authorities to adopt Covid-19.
However, on 20 February, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the situation in Tanzania was “very worrying.”
Tanzania did not implement any of the recommendations but Dr Mollel said it was not the government’s intention to go against the WHO or other international organizations but used only “common sense.” ”
Vaccination registration
He dismissed the idea of restarting the sharing of Covid-19 data, saying that data on “respiratory diseases like Covid-19” were specifically for use by medical staff to monitor movements and eliminate solutions and may not want to spend it in public as this could “increase pressure and panic levels among the population, thus exacerbating the problem.”
Tanzania last released Covid-19 statistics in April 2020 showing 509 positive cases and 21 deaths.
Attempts with The EastAfrican contact the deputy minister for comments to be futile.
The WHO has not been asked questions about how it works with ideas like those of Tanzania as well.
Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, says vaccines cannot be used in countries where they have not been registered and licensed for use.
“The normal process is for the country’s experts, along with regulatory bodies, to review the vaccine data and allow its use if they are satisfied about its effectiveness and safety. For the Covid-19, this is done through the WHO Emergency Use List method.