The Ministries of Health and Education have resolved to vaccinate all Learners aged between 12 and 17 years in government’s effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 among young people.
Their primary Target is to vaccinate seven million Learners.
The program is designed to kick off in May and June, after being rescheduled from August, and despite that the COVID-19 cases have significantly decreased and the threat appears less severe.
However, speculations suggest that the urgency of this move came after the health ministry warned that available donated vaccines were about to expire by September.
Meanwhile, sources within the Education ministry have also intimated that non-compliance by schools to feed Covid-19 data into the school surveillance system left the ministry with no option but to go with mandatory vaccination of learners.
Consent of parents before vaccination of their Learners, according to sources privy with the preparations, won’t be necessary if the Public Health (Amendment) bill is passed in the coming days by parliament.
Among others, the bill seeks to amend Section 38 of the principal act by mandating a parent or guardian of every child resident in Uganda to cause the child to be vaccinated by a public vaccinator, against the diseases, that may be declared by the minister, within 12 months from birth.
The government’s initial school surveillance system initially aimed at tracking COVID-19 infections, has now backfired with only a handful of schools having the capacity to relay the info to the respective ministries.
Due to this gap in information and added to the ever-emerging new Covid-19 strains, government has been pushed into a corner of vaccinating the learners.
Backlash
However, the move has attracted criticism from various stakeholders, especially from the medical front. Critics argue that government should first ensure safety of the adult population before even considering the learners, given that Covid-19 is not a threat to them.
“The Health ministry’s own statistics show that children are the least affected demographic with almost a 100 per cent survival rate. So, why should government take a hard stance on Covid-19 vaccination for children even before securing the adults?” Simon Senyonga, a lawyer, reasons.
“There is no need for turning the inefficiencies of the ministry into an opportunity to vaccinate young people against their will.”
The government needs to do more research before embarking on this move to make vaccination of children mandatory, says an immunologist at Mulago hospital who preferred anonymity.
“I’m pro-vaccination but these Covid-19 vaccines can trigger fundamental changes in a child’s immune system,” said a doctor who preferred anonymity for fear of being targeted.
“The most alarming aspect of this mandatory vaccination of learners is if damage occurs, it is irreparable and cannot be reversed. For instance, you cannot repair a genetically reset immune system. What is also worrying is that these vaccines have not been fully tested and there is need for at least five years before making it mandatory after understanding all the risks involved.”
Last month, members of parliament on the Health committee called for the speedy implementation of the move to vaccinate the learners.
But while interfacing with private school head teachers, it was brought to them that vaccination should be based on informed voluntary consent, especially for new vaccinations, of which some are still in trial phase.
“Parents of our children know their medical history; so, they need to be consulted and educated prior to these vaccinations. Therefore, schools should not be held responsible for the decisions of others,” noted Eric Senyonjo, the proprietor of St Anne’s Preparatory School in Kabowa, who was part of the delegation.