By Dolapo Aina
After months of wanting to getting vaccinated since it is becoming crystal clear that vaccination cards are now a pre-requisite to not only gain access to certain places but also travel, the avenue presented itself and this writer engaged his legs in rapid dialogue to Camp Kigali (the vaccination centre which also facilitates the vaccination of foreigners living in Kigali). Watching how other Africans in their respective countries were nonchalant about getting vaccinated when vaccines were available in their countries has been quite baffling. The reasons given and deduced from conversations I have had with Africans (educated and quasi-literate) have been from the outrageous to the incredulous and one comes out of such discussions, laughing and not furious but curious as to the blatant hesitancy. But there has been a familiar part which is that there is usually a scramble to get vaccinated immediately the Indian variant (Delta variant) lands and has done a bit of havoc in a country. But this helter-skelter for vaccines causes an instant shortage. The one simple question one asks is why then, do people who were nonchalant about getting vaccinated wait till the last minute to get the jab?
Countries are on several stages of the vaccination campaigns. Currently, the vaccination campaigns in Rwanda have extended to people who are forty years old and above. Also, people who are sixty years and above. Not only this, the campaign has begun visiting homes of elderly people who can’t get to public health centres in their various sectors or districts. This is made possible by sending vital details to a designated and easy to remember 4-digit number (3260) and the mobile vaccination team would be sent to the address.
To get my first vaccination, I had to touch base at Camp Kigali (a site with a lot of history) and arriving at 10am; getting vaccinated at 10:24am and waiting for 10 minutes as advised by the medical personnel; the whole process and time spent at the site was 34 minutes and could have been much less.
Any discerning individual who has been following the corona pandemic and the vaccination campaigns and drive by countries and especially on the African Continent would know that being vaccinated places one in a better stead than not being vaccinated. Following the science now in getting protection is akin to the polio vaccination drive some decades ago on the Continent. Those individuals who listened to religious clerics and not government medical officials still live with the repercussions of their judgement whilst the irony is that in a lot of cases, the same clerics who clamoured for their followers not to get polio vaccinations for their babies, don’t have the same repercussions with their own polio vaccinated children.
Vaccine hesitancy should not only be left to governments and their agencies to tackle. Leaders in their different spheres also have an important role to play in disseminating the right information and in this peculiar case of vaccine hesitancy on the African Continent, the right scientific based information. The present reality of the globe is not akin to a video game. This isn’t the Super Mario where Mario has more than one life to spare.
The present reality of the globe where some Western and developed countries initially purchased more than enough vaccines that they would need, where those countries with excess vaccines are exchanging vaccines with short life span with countries who need vaccines urgently, where some Western countries have officially side-lined and not approved some vaccines all due to profits and valuation going to billions of dollars (which have accrued in some cases) would accrue to their pharmaceutical corporations who are producing the vaccines; while other countries’ vaccine production initiatives are being hampered. says a lot about what the Continent of Africa has to do. By any means necessary, get vaccinated and still wear your facemask, hand sanitise and observe physical distancing when appropriate. Vaccines saves lives.
Dolapo Aina, writes from Kigali, Rwanda
