For months, the ministry of Health was pushing for the mandatory vaccination of all learners against Covid-19. Of recent, however, it has dragged its feet following a wide range of criticism, writes ERNEST JJINGO.
The ministry's justification for fronting this bill is intended to protect the vulnerable people by creating tough penalties for noncompliance on grounds that unvaccinated people endanger the health of the community.
The ministry further argues that there is need to get a mass of people vaccinated to create herd immunity and that it's important that whoever is supposed to be vaccinated gets vaccinated.
In fact, there is a bill in offing to amend the Public Health Act. Among the amendments is to give government authority to vaccinate learners without need for their consent or that of their parents.
However, a wide range of criticism of the bill recently has forced government to drag its feet amid condemnation that the forcing someone to be vaccinated is an affront to the protection of human rights.
In April, government, through the ministry of Health, stated that it plans to roll out a nationwide vaccination for children aged five to 17 years, with special interest in teenagers aged 12 to 17.
However, it noted that was yet to devise a concrete work plan of implementing the exercise with the ministries of Education and Local government ministries. Some critics have noted that the rush to vaccinate children is being driven by the concern that most of the vaccines are about to expire within a few months.
The first signs of government's non-committal to push on with the compulsory vaccination of learners can be seen in the continuous postponements to table the Public Health Amendment Bill in parliament.
Then on May 20, Janet Museveni, the Education and Sports minister, insisted that no school-going children will be vaccinated against Covid-19 without a written consent from parents or guardians.
"When parents feel free to take their children for Covid-19 vaccination, they do it. If they don't want to vaccinate their children, nobody will force them. It is not compulsory. I do not know where you got that information that it was compulsory," she said.
Yet in spite of the clarification, several sources within the Health ministry insist plans are continuing to start vaccination through the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization (UNEPI).
EXPERT WARNING
Uganda has already vaccinated over 12 million Ugandans with Covid-19 vaccines. However, the vaccines do not prevent spread or infection and with recovery rate of 99 per cent, questions remain why there is need for mandatory vaccination of children.
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At a recent virtual townhall meeting on child health to analyze the risks and benefits of compulsorily vaccinating children, Dr Clara Wekesa, a physician, noted that the public has not been sufficiently equipped or sensitized to participate in this rollout program.
"I know that people will argue that giving vaccination prevents people from getting the infection or hospitalization, but the data from children shows the infection itself is less than one per cent," she said.
"The children need to develop natural immunity to guard the body against other ailments or illnesses."
Meanwhile, Eric Ssenyonjo, the head teacher of St Anne's primary school, said forced vaccination of learners may ignite conflicts between parents and schools and poses a serious legal dilemma.
"As teachers, our role to provide an education to students, not healthcare. So, when you try to involve me in this vaccination then the least I can do is inform the parent first," he said.
"In fact, at school, when a child falls sick, all we do is lab tests, monitor and then inform the parent before administering any medication, because some children are allergic to sulphur compounds and other chemicals. Now government is trying to push us as schools to work with them against the parents in the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. As educationists, we are not in for that. We are in the middle of this fire and it's not fair for us."
Several officials and experts from the Health ministry declined to comment on the issue due to its sensitivity. However, what is clear is that there is growing loss of interest for mandatory vaccination of children.
