MBALE – The government of Uganda thinks that all school staff have to be vaccinated before pupils’ planned return to class after the lockdown.
The ministry of Education and sports says the vaccination must include all teachers, catering staff, administrators, caretakers and cleaners to keep children and their families safe.
Mrs Janet Museveni has therefore ordered the country’s teachers to get vaccinated against Covid-19 or risk being barred from classrooms when schools reopen.
This came after government was put under pressure to reopen schools, which were closed on 6 June to contain the second wave of Covid-19 infections.
The government’s vaccination drive is important for everyone in the country; it is a key element at this stage of the pandemic fight, together with adherence to public health guidelines, and adequate testing, contact tracing and isolation but our government should recognize and respect the difference between encouraging vaccination through educational campaigns based on actual science, and utilizing tactics aimed at pressuring teachers to be vaccinated.
Ever since the idea of mandatory vaccination for teachers was raised, my argument has been that it is reckless for government to employ a ‘no jab, ‘no job’ policy but rather government must think, rethink about individual rights – even the legal rights.
Although it is clear in this country that the health and safety regulation that already (rightly) governs our workplaces, in forcing the teachers to get vaccinated, government is now legislating against individual freedom.
And like other employees, teachers have certain rights to decline vaccination for reasons related to disability or religion, but may not have additional rights held by employer.
Most of our schools in the country are day schools; does this mean that when you vaccinate teachers without vaccinating parents at home, children will be safe?
Children spend most of their time at home with unvaccinated parents where they are more likely to be infected than when in school; this is an axiomatic fact.
True, in a post-pandemic world, that humble card for those who are fully vaccinated could become an important document used for travel, attending events, returning to the post-pandemic office and other purposes but government must rethink this compulsory vaccination for teachers.
For a country that is already struggling to convince people that it is democratic and offers the best prospects for Ugandans including their rights, forcing teachers to get vaccinated smacks of a lack of respect and a worrying dissolution of individual freedoms.
My Perspective is not of the view that teachers ought to be coerced into being vaccinated, or that they ought to be subjected to punitive conditions like losing their jobs should they choose not to take the jab at this time for at the end of the day vaccination is a medical decision, not a political statement, a patriotic imperative, or a non-invasive action such as social distancing or mask-wearing.
One of the foundational differences between vaccines that are being administered to people in Uganda especially COVID-19 vaccines is the thinking that many of them are still in the experimental phase, and have not yet received full regulatory approval.
This fact understandably creates hesitancy in many people, who question what the long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccination might be, and who continue to monitor reports of serious adverse side effects confirmed or suspected to be connected to both the viral vector vaccines such as AstraZeneca, and to mRNA vaccines.
Research points to a reduced risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 for those who are vaccinated, though it remains inconclusive on the ability of COVID-19 vaccines to stop transmission – an essential factor in the development of hard immunity through vaccination.
Our government should open up schools without attaching strings of compulsory vaccination for teachers to start the education programme for our children but task parents to buy Covidex- a local drug manufactured in Uganda which they believe in as they wait for Ugandan manufactured vaccines.
Take it, leave it if a medical decision is made out of fear of discrimination, loss of employment or odious social consequences, it is arguably not a voluntary medical decision for the teachers.
Article 6 of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights states, “Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information.”
There have been a lot of social media reports on the vaccines, government should take time to educate and sensitise people on how safe the various vaccines are, whether they will provide the much-needed hope, give people sense of relief since the vaccines are marred by conversations surrounding their safety.
Many European countries including Germany, Norway among others have rejected AstraZeneca and Covax. What a paradox that Uganda received a ‘donation’ of 286,080 doses of AstraZeneca from Norway after the latter rejected the very vaccine!! Is our country a dumping ground?! Many media reports indicate many of the COVID ‘vaccines’ are not vaccines.
Our government should utilise this time to explain to the people how the various vaccines are rather than just allowing anything called a vaccine for Covid 19 in the country and using Ugandans as Guinea rabbits for testing the vaccines.
Le us make use of all media, use VHTs, use medical workers across the country to teach and sensitise them about efficacy of the various vaccinations against Covid 19 and let attempts to fast-track the vaccines not supersede the fact that vaccines must be both safe and effective before distribution.
All teachers read and they have discovered that American regulators have determined that there is evidence of a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine [the one we are using here] and a rare form of blood clots, though investigations are still ongoing.
Some scientists have pointed out that women who take hormonal contraceptives or women, who are pregnant, are at a higher risk of developing blood clots than incidences reported after AstraZeneca vaccination.
Since both the use of hormonal contraceptives and pregnancy predispose women to blood clots, risk stratification conducted by one’s healthcare provider is essential to determine whether the risk of vaccination for such women, outweighs the potential benefits.
In such a scenario apart from telling teachers to forcedly go for compulsory vaccination with threats of losing their jobs if they don’t vaccinate, has government been able to tell this to the pregnant teachers and those taking contraceptives to avoid the jab.
Scientists are currently probing the dangers of Covid 19 vaccines to the potential link in the use of hormonal contraceptives and the rare blood clot complication which is reportedly experienced by more women than men.
Although the thought clearly appears that government is compelling teachers to be vaccinated for the safety of learners, government should know that, those who submit to COVID-19 vaccination ought to do so voluntarily, not out of fear of losing a large segment of their income if they do not comply.
It is also known that even fully vaccinated people can still contract and transmit COVID-19, so it is currently unknown how long immunity via COVID-19 vaccination lasts, government, president Museveni’s trusted scientists; please teachers need to educated on this because it is the biggest cause of hesitance.
I would like to encourage more Ugandans to go to vaccination and the teachers opting to be vaccinated is also encouraging news for not only health officials but the country at large.
And as the vaccination effort continues, I would like to reiterate my position that providing teachers and all Ugandans with vaccination information based on the science as it is known is good practice and what is not good practice is to coerce teachers into vaccination based on claims not supported by the science, or to seek to force vaccination on any basis.
David Mafabi, a veteran journalist and PML Daily senior writer
