COVID-19 vaccine denial

Tanzania’s health minister announced early this month that the country has no intention of procuring vaccines. Catherine Kyobutungi describes how the country’s leaders have gone against the recommendations of scientists and the World Health Organisation. This includes recommending to Tanzanians that they turn to prayer and traditional medicine to protect themselves against COVID-19. She sets out what the implications are – for Tanzania, its neighbours and the world.

Madagascar has also said it won’t be vaccinating its population. Pathology expert Ahmed Kalebi unpacks why the approaches taken by Madagascar and Tanzania present a problem. It creates a breeding ground for the new coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2 – to mutate into more aggressive variants which current vaccines may not be effective against. And, given the interconnectedness of the world, no particular population is safe unless everyone in the world is safe.

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Moina Spooner

Commissioning Editor: East and Francophone Africa

One of Tanzania’s approaches to managing the spread of the new coronavirus is through prayer. Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images

What Tanzania’s COVID-19 vaccine reluctance means for its citizens and the world

Catherine Kyobutungi, African Population and Health Research Center

The pandemic will not end for anyone, anywhere until it is controlled in every country. Tanzania’s approach will make it that much harder for normality to return.

A nurse holds a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images

COVID-19: what happens if some countries don’t vaccinate?

Ahmed Kalebi, University of Nairobi

Even those that live in areas where the population has already been vaccinated would not be totally protected if the virus mutates elsewhere.

Politics

Mali fails to face up to the persistence of slavery

Marie Rodet, SOAS, University of London; Bakary Camara, Université des sciences juridiques et politiques de Bamako; Lotte Pelckmans, University of Copenhagen

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Yohannes Eneyew Ayalew, Monash University

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Science + Technology

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Thando Vilakazi, University of Johannesburg; Namhla Landani, University of Johannesburg

New technologies and supermarket supplier development programmes can help integrate small agro businesses into local and global value chains.

From our international editions

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The $4 trillion economic cost of not vaccinating the entire world

Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, University of Maryland

The world's most advanced economies will incur half the total costs associated with a failure to vaccinate poorer nations, which could exceed $4 trillion if only half their citizens are inoculated.

En Français

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