“In Africa, antivaxes are similar to those in the North”

Tribune. Since the appearance of Covid-19, we have seen challenges to measures taken by government authorities around the world. Are the antivax of the South different from those of the North? The vaccination rate is certainly very contrasted between the North (Europe or the United States) above 50%, and Africa below 10%. In Senegal, it is around 2% while in Cameroon only 0.3% of the population is fully vaccinated.

“One World, One Health” (“One world, one health”), proclaims the World Health Organization (WHO): the system Covax that it set up promised wide access to vaccines, at a lower price, and the delivery of some 520 million doses by the end of 2021. In early August, only 15% had been sent. China has taken over, in its own way: if Cameroon received 200,000 doses of Sinopharm free of charge from April 2021, Senegal paid as much at a high price (20 dollars per unit, about 16.85 euros), before receive 300,000 free of charge… The United States began to deliver various African countries free of charge this summer, perhaps inspired by Chinese “soft power”? “One Health, One Market” …

Read the survey: Access to anti-Covid vaccines: the great North-South divide

Strong resistance from the populations increased the effects of this influence peddling on vaccination. In Senegal, the populations, skeptical about the existence of the disease, refused the containment measures at the beginning. Then, their distrust of the authorities fueled a collective feeling of aversion to the vaccine.

Mistrust and mismanagement

Despite the awareness campaigns carried out by political and religious authorities, vaccines already sent to public health establishments were returned to the ministry for lack of takers. The hesitations were also fueled by feedback from the primary vaccines. People with headache, heaviness in the arm, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. invested public space, virtual and physical, to bear witness to their misadventures.

The costs of side effects are not covered by the hospital and the questions and concerns raised by antivaccines are only cautiously dispelled by the health authorities, who consider them to be unfounded rumors and prefer to increase their communication on statistics ( number of cases and deaths recorded, number of emergency room admissions, number of vaccinated, etc.).

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