It's time for Africa to rein in Tanzania's anti-vaxxer president

BAK

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Feb 11, 2007
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John Magufuli’s cavalier disregard of Covid’s impact in the great lakes region is fuelling conspiracies and endangering lives

What is wrong with President John Magufuli? Many people in and outside Tanzania are asking this question.

Magufuli claimed last year that God had eliminated Covid in the east African country of 60 million people, and has since made dismissing Covid vaccines his central priority – leaving many people asking: why?

In politics, there are generally two ways of making decisions. The first is evidence-based, weighing the pros and cons and choosing the best option; the greatest good for the greatest number.

The other is a populist approach, hell-bent against facts, science and logic. In a global pandemic where more than 2 million people have died, that is catastrophic.

The Tanzanian president seems to be taking populism to a whole new level.

Maybe he is under the influence of the same rabid anti-lockdown social media messaging that has persuaded some of my family and friends that Bill Gates or 5G have created the virus. But regardless of Magufuli’s cavalier motivation, these stances are a danger to public health. People are being exposed to suffering, and in some cases death.

African nations fear more Covid deaths before vaccination begins

Although the virus’s effect on Africa – including the numbers hospitalised or being tested – has not been quantified, the grim facts are crystal clear from within Magufuli’s own circle.

He knows Ghana’s former president, Jerry John Rawlings, has died from the virus. So too has former Congo-Brazzaville president Jacques Joaquim Yhombi-Opango. Last month four Zimbabwe cabinet ministers, including Sibusiso Moyo, the army general turned foreign minister who helped oust Robert Mugabe, died of Covid. In Malawi, four government officials, including two cabinet ministers, succumbed.

In Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the prime minister, Ambrose Dlamini, fell to the virus. Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister, Sadiq al-Mahdi, has died, as has Libya’s former prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, and Somalia’s former prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein. In Burundi, Tanzania’s neighbour, two former presidents – Pierre Nkurunziza and Pierre Buyoya – have died from Covid-19. The African Union secured 270m doses of Covid vaccine for member states to supplement their efforts, highlighting the strong resurgence in cases and deaths that is sweeping through the continent.

Yet Magufuli sticks bizarrely to asserting that Covid is a hoax. Instead of supporting lockdowns, and encouraging mask wearing as we prepare to mark the sombre anniversary of one year since the virus arrived in Africa, he has chosen to directly contradict local, regional and international efforts to defeat it.

According to Magufuli, who ordered officials to stop reporting Covid cases last May, when there were 509 infections and 21 deaths, Tanzania is Covid-free; an alleged status the country shares with North Korea and Turkmenistan. In a bizarre scene last month, Magufuli praised China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, for not wearing a face mask during a visit to the country, as though this were a good thing.

You really have to wonder, just what is wrong with Magufuli? In his crusade as an anti-vaxxer president, he has gone from repeatedly playing down the virus and mocking World Health Organization guidance to falsely claiming that Tanzania is Covid-free, and now to outrightly attacking his people for being vaccinated, fuelling denialism and conspiracies.

For a continent already battered by health and social issues, including hunger, malaria, displacement, unemployment, violence and insecurity, Magufuli’s unconscionable stance should compel us all to act.

Magufuli, who won another five-year term amid fraud allegations in 2020, is still fuelling anti-vaxxers as the pandemic and its new variants continue to play out. He needs to be challenged openly and directly. To look on indifferently exposes millions of people in Tanzania and across Africa’s great lakes region – as well as communities across the world – to this deadly and devastating virus.

Vava Tampa is a freelance writer, focusing on Africa’s great lakes, decolonisation and culture

 
Chanjo kimeo, waliagiza dozi millioni 1 kutoka Uongereza zote ni kimeo....
Ushamba mzigo
Kuna aina mpya ya virusi vya Corona vilivyo anza kuonekana South Africa hivi vime ' mutate' toka kwenye vile vilivyo sambaa dunia nzima
Hivyo wa South lazima wafanye utafiti kujua Kama chanjo hii inafaa kwa virusi hivyi vipya kwanza.
Jifunze kutafuta taarifa sahihi kwanza
 
They are doing it already, WHO office for Africa is getting data from Tanzania’s neighbours to determine infection data that is close to reality, they have models to use. The director has confirmed there are on-going discussions to establish figures for vaccine allocation.

This is the trick they are using, to open the global economy we all require coordinated response to international travel. A covid caccine will be a requirement for international travel just like the yellow fever one is. That is when we will get vaccinated and our number one will be forced to stay quiet!
 
They are doing it already, WHO office for Africa is getting data from Tanzania’s neighbours to determine infection data that is close to reality, they have models to use. The director has confirmed there are on-going discussions to establish figures for vaccine allocation.

This is the trick they are using, to open the global economy we all require coordinated response to international travel. A covid caccine will be a requirement for international travel just like the yellow fever one is. That is when we will get vaccinated and our number one will be forced to stay quiet!
Keep on dreaming..
 
Kuna kitu hakijakaa sawa kuhusiana na suala zima la chanjo,lazima tujiridhishe pasipo shaka yeyote kabla ya kuikimbilia. Hatuogopi, walisema Africa tungeisha kwa Covid. Wataweweseka sana wakumbuke vitu vya kutengenezwa maabara vikikutana na uhalisia matokeo yanakuwa tofauti
 
Keep on dreaming..
Magu hana ubavu wa kupambana head-on na mabeberu. Angalau Nyerere alifurukuta, kwa kushirikiana nao kwa akili. Magu hana kete yoyote. Ubabe wa kishamba tu
 
Keep on dreaming..
This level and kind of thinking is what is brings that beautiful country down. You can think outside the box, but very close to it. Get far away from the comfort of that box. Go far to the point you cannot see it - stay there and think. By the way, I have more to lose than you do!! And for your information - measles, polio, pepopunda, dondakoo and kifaduro (in Kiswahili so you can know them) need vaccines and you have NEVER been able to buy them. ARVs are bought by mabeberu and given to you free. Instead of finding your own cure or medication, you sit and trash the R&Ds of other people and nations!! Science demands that you challenge it scientifically - empty rhetoric has no place in this world.

You think I am dreaming, I think you are ill-informed, incompetent and ignorant. That combo is hard to beat!! I tip my hat!!
 
This level and kind of thinking is what is brings that beautiful country down. You can think outside the box, but very close to it. Get far away from the comfort of that box. Go far to the point you cannot see it - stay there and think. By the way, I have more to lose than you do!! And for your information - measles, polio, pepopunda, dondakoo and kifaduro (in Kiswahili so you can know them) need vaccines and you have NEVER been able to buy them. ARVs are bought by mabeberu and given to you free. Instead of finding your own cure or medication, you sit and trash the R&Ds of other people and nations!! Science demands that you challenge it scientifically - empty rhetoric has no place in this world.

You think I am dreaming, I think you are ill-informed, incompetent and ignorant. That combo is hard to beat!! I tip my hat!!
Dah hiki kiingereza cha shule za kata si bora ungeandika kiswahili tu.
 
Dah hiki kiingereza cha shule za kata si bora ungeandika kiswahili tu.
Kwa taarifa yako tu, wakati nikisoma hakukuwa na shule ya kata!! Kusema wewe umesema shule ya kata ni dharau kwa shule hizo, wewe ni mtu uliyehudhuria darasani tu - bila kujali aina ya shule uliyosoma!! Nasema hivi kwa sababu nimekuwa nimeandika kiingereza kibaya, ungekuwa na uwezo wa kuonesha ni wapi nimekosea. Lakini akili ndogo hufanya kazi kama yako, badala ya kuzungumzia mada - sasa umeleta shule za kata na habari ya lugha. Umesahau lilikuwa ni swala la chanjo. Akili kisoda iko kama yako!! Trivial issues ndio hupata muda na nafasi!! Umebaki mtupu kwenye mada hii!!
 
Kwa taarifa yako tu, wakati nikisoma hakukuwa na shule ya kata!! Kusema wewe umesema shule ya kata ni dharau kwa shule hizo, wewe ni mtu uliyehudhuria darasani tu - bila kujali aina ya shule uliyosoma!! Nasema hivi kwa sababu nimekuwa nimeandika kiingereza kibaya, ungekuwa na uwezo wa kuonesha ni wapi nimekosea. Lakini akili ndogo hufanya kazi kama yako, badala ya kuzungumzia mada - sasa umeleta shule za kata na habari ya lugha. Umesahau lilikuwa ni swala la chanjo. Akili kisoda iko kama yako!! Trivial issues ndio hupata muda na nafasi!! Umebaki mtupu kwenye mada hii!!
Haya Sasa tuongelee chanjo kwa hii lugha yetu pendwa.
 
I agree with what you said but translate it into swahili language so that watu wakuelewe!

Ebo!:D:D:D:D:D
 
Haya Sasa tuongelee chanjo kwa hii lugha yetu pendwa.
You are a waste of space. You should have mentioned that you cannot contribute in the language in which the first post was written! After writing "keep on dreaming" I thought you had substance, kumbe it was just wind!!! And you said I went to shule ya kata. For your information, I went to St. Mary's Seminary Nyegezi back in the 1980's!!!! (your Attorney General was my prefect). Usidharau watu halafu ukataka kujadiliana nao chochote. I am out.
 
You are a waste of space. You should have mentioned that you cannot contribute in the language in which the first post was written! After writing "keep on dreaming" I thought you had substance, kumbe it was just wind!!! And you said I went to shule ya kata. For your information, I went to St. Mary's Seminary Nyegezi back in the 1980's!!!! (your Attorney General was my prefect). Usidharau watu halafu ukataka kujadiliana nao chochote. I am out.
Hahahaa.. basi yaishe mkuu. Naona upo serious sana na jukwaa la Siasa. Hapa wengine tunapotezea muda tu.
 
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