Where are Covid-19 vaccines?

The second wave of Covid-19 is here. It is more vicious and spreading at a more alarming rate among Malawians. Health workers are warning that soon hospitals may not cope with the rise in demand for oxygen and even bed space.

By now every Malawian should know that Covid-19 is caused by the Severe Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (Sars-Cov-2). It spreads through cough droplets from infected persons to non-infected ones. 

By now every Malawian should know that Covid-19 can be prevented by regularly washing hands with soap or sanitizing them with an alcohol-based liquid; covering faces, especially mouths and  noses with a facemask or face shield or screen, and socially distancing ourselves, by, for example, avoiding direct contacts by handshakes.

By now every Malawian should know that the surest way to fight the Covid-19 Sars is through achieving herd immunity.  The quickest and least deadly way to achieve herd immunity is through vaccination so that the body produces anti-Covid white cells or antibodies, the natural defenders of our body system against new and old diseases.

Thanks to our health professionals, Malawians, especially Malawian mothers, are not afraid of vaccinations. They religiously take their children for BCG, DPT, Polio and Measles and vaccinations. Most understand that vaccinations may have side effects, such as irritation, illness and, in extremely rare circumstances, death but these sacrifices worth for us defend ourselves against life-threatening illnesses all our lives.

Malawians are ready. We are ready for the vaccinations because we know most of us have reached adulthood because our parents followed professional health advice and got us vaccinated. Our parents ignored fatalist misgivings because they knew that God wants His people to be healthy and successful.  Our parents were clever.  We are clever and we know what is good for us and our nation. The development we desire and the successes were dream about can only be achieved if we are healthy as a nation.

This history of successful vaccination in Malawi should be scaled up and used to prepare Malawians for Covid-19 vaccination. Time for public awareness and demand generation for covid-19 vaccines is now. Now; not tomorrow. Time for public assurance about the safety and efficaciousness of the vaccines is now. Now, not tomorrow. 

If we delay awareness and demand generation campaigns, the infodemic, the falsehood and the scaremongering, circulating and being shared unfettered on social media will build in people is a resistance to vaccination that may be too hard to dissolve.

As Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda used to say, a lie repeated frequently enough becomes truth.   Even those who were open to vaccination are likely to start questioning the effects of the covid-19 vaccines.

These fears will worsen if no clear choice is made about which vaccine Malawi will inject into its people: Chinese Sinopharm, British Oxford/Astra-Zeneca; US Moderna or Pfizer-Biontech, Russian Sputnik-V, or India’s Bharat?

Have most at-risk and frontline workers been identified to be prioritized for vaccination? Are they health personnel, members of Parliament and ward councilors, minibus drivers, kabaza cyclists, religious leaders, chiefs, teachers, police officers, or soldiers?

Two weeks ago, we heard that the government of Malawi would benefit from the WHO Covax facility to obtain vaccines for its citizens.   But we did not hear something critical.

Thus asketh Amai Prof Dr Joyce Befu, MEGA-1: What is the timeline for Malawi’s Covid-19 vaccination?