Victims of fake Covid-19 vaccines scam equally bear the blame and must take responsibility for attempting to circumvent and access a public good at the expense of established systems, the government has said.
Dr Alfred Driwale, program manager for immunization also the assistant commissioner at the Health ministry says in fact the victims are more of accomplices in the crime than victims and should stop bothering the government and the general public. He encourages the victims to work with the police to find out what they were injected with.
Driwales's unsympathetic outburst follows reports that over 800 unsuspecting persons mainly in Kampala may have been vaccinated by counterfeit or fake vaccines for a fee ranging between Shs 100,000 and Shs 200,000. Among the victims are employees of United Bank of Africa, Diamond Trust Bank, Dott Services, Tororo Cement, Madhvani Group, Uganda Baati, Seven Hills employees among others.
"Those vaccines do not resemble the vaccines which we imported for you. Are they vaccines? We don't know. Are they vaccines that were relabelled? I don't know. Are they vaccines from a neighbouring country? We do not know. Did they use bottles filled with Aqua Sipi [water]? We don't know. So you who chooses to get services from ungazetted areas, you're on your own. So don't transfer that burden to us. It is you who colluded to get services outside the broader guideline of government. You thought your money can do everything, now you're in it. Is it water, is it urine, is it a foreign vaccine? It is you and the thief who know. So you answer that question," Dr Driwales said.
Driwale was one of the panelists at a joint media briefing by Twaweza Uganda and the ministry of Health on Saturday. The briefing was about the emerging wave of misinformation about the anti-coronavirus vaccination exercise.
Driwale insisted the coronavirus vaccines being administered by the government in partnership with the World Health Organization are free of charge. He decried the growing cancer in the country where individuals or organizations tend to use money to circumvent the government processes and procedures in order to receive goods and services.
The State house health monitoring unit identified Francis Baguma, currently on the run as the person behind the fake vaccines scam. Two nurses who were found vaccination booklets and stamps from Kiswa health centre and KCCA stamps were arrested last week while attempting to inject another 90 victims. There no evidence linking Kiswa health centre and KCCA to the scam.
CONFIDENCE IN VACCINES
A survey by Twaweza Uganda's Sauti Za Wanainchi reveals that 7 out of 10 Kampala residents say they are willing to have the vaccination against Covid-19.
Most Kampala residents (68 per cent) say they are willing to take the vaccine as a protection against Covid-19. The survey said Kampala residents trust the government to handle vaccine acquisition and distribution. According to the survey, the three main institutions trusted by Kampala residents to acquire and distribute the Covid-19 vaccine are all government institutions: The ministry of Health (36 per cent), public health facilities (20 per cent) and local governments (18 per cent).
This is followed by the church (9 per cent) and private health facilities (6 per cent). Globally, only governments and multilateral agencies like WHO are supposed to monitor the movement of the Covid-19 vaccines so that there is little room for bad actors to exploit.
According to Interpol reports, more than 80 people have so far been arrested in China and South Africa with over 5,000 fake COVID-19 vaccine doses Fake vaccines pose a danger to people's health.
They may even contain harmful ingredients which can directly cause illness or death. Even if they are not contaminated, fake Covid-19 vaccines may give people a false sense of security whereby they assume they are protected when in fact they remain at heightened risk of getting and spreading the virus seized.
Driwale said that falsification or faking of Covid vaccines is unlikely to happen as long as they have been channeled to the established supply chain mechanisms. Last month, police seized over 700 doses of genuine vaccines found at private facilities in Wandegeya and Ntinda after being stolen from government facilities.
Driwale said more genuine vaccines were also impounded by the police having been stolen from districts out of Kampala. The recipients, according to Driwale were still at risk in case the vaccines got spoilt while as they got smuggled out of government facilities.
"Those were good true vaccines which were meant for you. But some health workers who changed their title to thief removed them. You know when you are a health worker and you steal, you are no longer a health worker, you are now a thief," he said
Only 130,000 Ugandans have been fully vaccinated with the two jabs and another 800,000 partially vaccinated. Meanwhile, unsuspecting persons are allegedly being lured into taking Covid tests by unknown persons claiming that it is a requirement for one to be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. But Driwale says testing is not a requirement for one to be vaccinated.
"If you want to make a decision in your family to go and test before you vaccinate, that is your family decision. And if you test and vaccinate, there is nothing that will happen to you. You made the decision yourself that you must test first before you get a vaccination. You know the reason better than me. So that is your private affairs. Don't make your private affair a public affair." he said
"Because we know that the vaccine does not cause disease. We know also that testing is more expensive than the vaccine. Therefore, there is no advantage of testing before vaccination. There are people who are using their private privileges to make announcements on behalf of the government. I think they are taking it too far. Our position is that test to vaccinate is not required. This is what we do for measles, this is what we do for polio, this is what we do indeed for our routine vaccination program."
There is a question of whether one who has tested positive for coronavirus should be vaccinated?
"If you are negative and you vaccinate, that is the right thing to do. If you are positive and you proceed to vaccinate, I think that is not correct because first of all the side effects of the vaccine will overlap with the symptoms of the disease. And it will bring confusion. If the unfortunate happens, then you are having a preexisting infection. If you progress to severe disease and you die, the blame will go on the vaccine," Driwale warned.
"This is not a therapeutic vaccine. This is not a vaccine for treating sick people. It is a vaccine for preventing severe forms of the disease. So it is a prevention intervention. So when you are already sick, you wait for the natural process to proceed first. In any case, you also acquire some immunity through infection. If you don't vaccinate, God will vaccinate you through infection. That is the big needle. The big needle will come if you fear the small needle. So it is not necessary for you to go and test as a precondition," he added
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