Proud, Tanzania tried to convince the world that it was “free” from Covid-19. But the illusion is starting to wear off as the death toll rises, officially due to “pneumonia.” The country, whose President John Magufuli from the outset minimized the presence and then the dangerousness of the virus, is not observing any measures intended to limit the pandemic. Large gatherings are permitted while the use of masks is mocked by the authorities. This Sunday morning, the World Health Organization even officially called on the country to take measures to protect its own citizens from the pandemic but also the populations of countries visited by Tanzanians.
More worryingly, Tanzania appears to be one of the only countries in the world to deliberately refuse any vaccine against Covid, considering that they are “dangerous for health”. The Head of State kept repeating that prayers and traditional remedies would save his population. A position which matches that adopted by the Malagasy authorities, favoring first “local medicines”, before possibly adopting the precious serum. Still, no country, apart from Tanzania, has displayed such a radical discourse vis-à-vis the vaccine.
“An anti-West ideology”
Wanting to be reassuring, the Tanzanian Minister of Health, Dorothy Gwajima, only invited citizens to strengthen their personal hygiene and to turn to plants. A demonstration of the preparation of a traditional remedy combining local herbs and spices has even been performed in front of journalists. However alarming it may be, this rejection of the vaccine “stems from a political posture of the government which is above all ideological, anti-system, anti-West”, analyzes Magali Chelpi-den Hamer, researcher at Iris and specialist in ‘Sub-Saharan Africa.
“It is the reflection of a generalized fed up with certain important drifts of the world system. The issue of access to the vaccine shows us today that the price of a life in Africa is unfortunately not equivalent to that of a Western life, ”she adds. For example, the executive director of Onusida, a UN agency fighting the AIDS pandemic, recently indicated that Uganda, neighboring Tanzania, should pay the equivalent of 7 euros per dose of AstraZeneca vaccine… Against 2 euros in Europe.
“It is impossible to know the true extent of the virus”
“A stinging snub to the notion of global common good,” comments the researcher. We can then understand that some heads of state retain a certain bitterness and do not wish to play this game ”. Likewise, the Covax system initiated by the WHO to allow a better distribution of vaccines in poor countries has already shown its many limits. Only ten countries have administered 75% of all vaccines, while more than 130 countries have not received any doses, according to the UN.
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For now, difficult to measure the extent of the virus in the country. And for good reason, Tanzania stopped publishing its official statistics on the Covid in April 2020. The latest figures showed 509 positive cases, 21 deaths and 183 healings, a balance sheet still unchanged to this day, according to the scientific journal The Lancet. After assuring in June that the country was out of trouble, the authorities have not communicated any more data. For their part, the journalists on the spot come up against the laws prohibiting the publication of articles on “fatal or contagious diseases” without official permission. Coverage of the epidemic is thus particularly hampered, underlines Reporters Without Borders.
Impeded media coverage
A journalist for the daily Tanzania Daima had to cease operations for six months because of a report on a patient with the virus, published without the consent of the authorities. Mwananchi newspaper, meanwhile, saw its online license suspended for six months and local television station Kwanza Online TV for 11 months following publications relating to the epidemic. Finally, three press groups were fined and had to issue a public apology after the broadcast of a report criticizing the president for not having decreed general confinement.
Concerns persist about the lack of transparency. The African Union called again last January on Tanzania to “quickly review” its position on the epidemic. But will this be enough? “Without the implementation of preventive measures, the Covid risks spreading even more and why not mutating again”, slips Mandira Bagwandeen, researcher at the Foundation for Scientific Research.
A vaccine, not the only solution
Without vaccination coverage, the fear of seeing the emergence of new problematic variants had already been mentioned by several scientists that by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. However, it would be “dishonest” to place the sole responsibility for a mutation of the virus in Tanzania, tempers Pascal Crépey, teacher-researcher in epidemiology at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health in Rennes.
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“The virus mutates all the time. The emergence of a problematic strain can then very well occur within a country which vaccinates its population too slowly, ”qualifies the specialist, before recalling that one of the rare vaccines offered to date in the countries of Africa, namely AstraZeneca, is shown to be less effective against the South African strain. “This is also a very serious argument for the authorities who do not want the vaccine at home,” adds the epidemiologist.
A health crisis among others
Likewise, if the absence of vaccination is obviously problematic, controlling an epidemic also requires the application of restrictive measures and barrier gestures. “The vaccine is not necessarily the only solution. We see it in China or in some island states, the epidemic could have been contained without it. The fact is that each country adopts its strategy, according to its geographical context and its health situation, ”recognizes Pascal Crépey.
Thus, tracing the model of a European vaccination on an African country like Tanzania seems to say the least illusory. Especially since the State, with very limited resources, remains suffocated by several health crises, recalls Magali Chelpi-den Hamer. “Health authorities are unfortunately used to managing the unmanageable. The AIDS epidemic in Tanzania has devastating consequences for the populations and malaria continues to kill in large numbers. The impact of Covid is therefore apprehended in relation to these other diseases. It is perhaps still a little early to judge the mortality of the virus, compared to its other plagues… ”, concludes the researcher.
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