Big Interview
Johnson and the delivery will start in early August 2021 , and it will be very predictable and consistent so that by the end of the year you will see a significant number of our people being fully vaccinated . We need that predictability to be able to plan and scale up vaccines . For instance , if you go to Kigali and tell people to go get their vaccines and they don ’ t find the vaccines , the next time you tell them to go , they will not go . That is the utility of the predictability of vaccination that we want to see . In Rwanda , for example , the first doses of Astra- Zeneca arrived , and within two weeks , they were all used . About 290 , 000 doses disappeared , just like that . For Pfizer , a batch of 102,000 doses ; and 50,000 doses were gone within a short while . When I was in Kigali , in the vaccine warehouses , you could only see the freezer that was standing there and was full of doses that were waiting for the second immunization . So , it can be done in Africa .
We should not accept this characterization that Africa is not using its vaccines because of vaccine hesitancy . Throw in vaccines in Rwanda , Nigeria , Ghana , Togo , Kenya ; they will be gone within a month . The narrative that vaccine hesitancy is delaying the vaccine programme is false . People don ’ t even have the vaccines , so how can they not use the vaccines ?
We have seen in countries like Cote d ' Ivoire where there was initial reluctance , but when people saw that the first set of people who received the vaccines were okay , you could see the rate of acceptance rising . Africans are used to vaccination . We live in a hostile tropical environment , so that is the only way we survive . So , we are not going to accept that characterization that we are a continent that is driven by vaccine hesitancy .
PAR : I am interested to hear your view on what you think drives that myth about hesitancy . Also , you could talk about the logistic challenges . To what extent have they been an impediment to effective vaccination .
The logistic challenges are there because , as a continent , we have never immunized about 200 million adults in one year . Remember , the vaccines that we are used to receiving are vaccines for childhood immunization . Even vaccination for yellow fever , which you need for travel , is not done on a large scale . But Africa is a resilient continent . We can use those vaccines ; I just cited the cases of countries that organized themselves . It ’ s a question of organization . You set up vaccination centres , you pull young people from medical schools who are at the end of their training , bring out those who have retired ( nurses and doctors ), and that gives you a capacity , and you get it done . I mean , it is not impossible to roll these vaccines out , but we have to have a predictable source of vaccines so that we can plan . You don ’ t plan in a vacuum because some of these vaccines come in minus 20 degrees , some come in minus 80 degrees . But it can be dealt with . Communities are very resilient ; they can easily work with us if they see value in what we ask and work with us in the public health sector to roll out vaccines very quickly . The logistics are there -- we need to factor in the scale of vaccination , but it is not an impossible task .
PAR : On the myth around vaccine hesitancy , what is driving that myth ?
It ’ s just that people are mischaracterizing us ; I don ’ t know what the undertone there is . Let me give you facts . As a continent , we have received about 61 million doses of vaccines . Of that number , 80 per cent of the vaccines have been consumed , which tells you that if the vaccines are here , we will use them . Are there pockets of resistance there ? Yes . But it ’ s unfortunate that anyone would take a pocket of resistance somewhere and project it as the continental hesitancy ; that is the myth there which people are trying to play out , saying , “ these Africans are not using the vaccines .” That is not correct .
PAR : You mentioned that manufacturing is a key answer to the issue of the predictability of vaccines . How hopeful are you that this is going to be implemented ? In the past , we have had situations where the answer is clear , but the ability to mobilize is …
No , we are mobilizing now . The starting point was the historic meeting we had on 12 and 13 April 2020 , where forty thousand participants gathered on a platform . During this entire pandemic when we started using platforms , I am yet to see a platform that brings together
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