Vaccination; Why The Rush?
At the advent of the year 2020, the world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic that originated from the Virology Labs in Wuhan, China.
NCSA Writer 
The ravaging impact of this pandemic led to the redefinition of several things including lifestyle and culture across various working spaces and industries. It was with the spike in cases that governments and firms including AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer came up with ideas for formulating vaccines to manage the spread of COVID19. Given that the pandemic death score was already high, there was insufficient preparation done to contain the spread by relying on the vaccines.
On February 17 2021, Uganda’s Ministry of Health which recorded minimal cases compared to the rest of the world in a disguised move to mitigate the effects of future pandemics drafted the Public Health (Amendment) Bill. The Bill was aimed at enforcing mandatory vaccination on all citizens that would fail to meet their vaccination obligations. The government also suggested that this would be most applicable in the face of a health emergency but did not clearly define what an “emergency” would be. Section 47(1)(b) of the Public Health (Amendment) Bill, 2021 states that a local government council shall require any person within its jurisdiction to be vaccinated or revaccinated and shall require the parent or guardian of any child, to have their child vaccinated or revaccinated. According to the bill clauses, this program implementation was meant to start with children between the age of 12 to 17 years.
According to the general statistics from the Ministry of Health concerning the recent COVID pandemic, 33% of Uganda’s population had been vaccinated and 20% had revaccinated. The Bill states that a person who fails to comply with the requirements made under this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of four million Ugandan shillings or an imprisonment of six months. In the same spirit, the Chairperson of the Health Committee, Dr Charles Ayume insists that the government has to enforce compliance in prevention and treatment. This would imply that without mandatory enforcement of this bill, the Committee would then be rendered useless.
Research indicates that any new vaccine or medicine has to undergo a series of tests and inspections for a period not less than 10 years before it is introduced or distributed to the public otherwise it is illegal to carry out mass mandatory vaccination with trial vaccines since its adverse side effects are not yet established. Interesting to note is that none of the COVID vaccines the Government encourages forced vaccination with has run a test of more than a year or so as required by the standard yet the Bill in question grants a lot of power to the Ministry of Health which infringes greatly on the fundamental human rights as promoted in the Ugandan Constitution.
This move by the government has not come without controversy, triggering lots of questions in the minds of so many Ugandans asking why, first and foremost, the Government found it necessary to make vaccination mandatory; why it targeted the less prone age group to succumb to COVID, and why the rush to forcefully vaccinate people with trial vaccines? What is more surprising is that all these concerns are without substantial answers from the Ministry. It was in response to this that some groups have come out to champion a campaign, “Stop Mandatory Vaccination”. These groups include the National Christian Students Association, Uganda Law Society, Medics for Faith Association, and End Lockdown Campaign to mention but a few. This bill is open to prey on the rights of children and does not provide consent of any of the responsible parties concerned such as parents and guardians. Inexcusable is that this is contrary to Article 34 of the Ugandan Constitution which provides that laws should be implemented to ensure that children have the rights to be cared for by their parents or those entitled by the law to care for them.
As part of the actions and initiatives to counter this bill, a group of students under the National Christian Students Association made appearance before the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on the March 14, 2022 with a memoranda addressing misconduct and the violation of the Spirit of liberty propagated by the Public Health (Amendment) Bill. According to the memoranda, it called for immediate action to amend some of the clauses of the Bill because of the heavy punishments imposed for non-compliance which also robs them of their bodily autonomy rights and also towards the misuse of the minister’s office.
It is important to note that there should be room for consent from the parents or guardians before any vaccination decisions are taken at hand because as citizens it’s a solid responsibility to abide by the laws and regulations of a country for as long as these laws don’t infringe of the spirit of liberty and a free will of operation.
Written by Mark Kayemba
The writer is a member of the National Christian Students Association
