As a Covid-19 survivor, it breaks my heart to realise that there is so much superstition and scepticism around vaccines designed to combat this disease, which has had such a horrific impact on both lives and livelihoods right across the globe.
And it is not only those who have not had the benefit of an education who are susceptible to the old wives’ tales that are flying around. Many would recall the infamous prayer by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, in which he insinuated some vaccines might wreak havoc with people’s genetic make-up. The learned judge – who reportedly doubles as a Christian minister – also implied he could see the fingerprints of the devil himself all over governments’ mass vaccination plans.
Now we are told a substantial number of South Africans will not accept a Covid-19 vaccine. A survey conducted for the World Economic Forum put the proportion at 64% of the population, while another survey, conducted by fintech company Comparisure, made a much lower finding of 52%. Besides religious considerations, many South Africans would balk at being inoculated because of safety concerns and doubts about the vaccines’ efficacy, among other factors.
The revelation that a large number of people in this country will likely refuse to take a Covid-19 shot comes at a time when the South African government is at pains to explain that a successful roll-out of its free vaccination programme is key to our battling economy recovering to prepandemic levels, as it would lead to the full resumption of economic activity, thus boosting growth and facilitating renewed trade.
It is not only South Africa whose mass vaccination campaign faces the risk of being compromised by superstition and conspiracy theories. Similar – and sometimes worse – hesitancy about the various vaccines that have been developed to protect against Covid-19 is commonplace across Africa, with an 18-country survey conducted by the Africa Centres for Disease Control in December showing that only one-quarter of respondents believed that Covid-19 vaccines would be safe. Of course, the top sceptic on the continent must be Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, who has dismissed Covid-19 jabs as “dangerous for our health”.
But Covid-19 vaccine cynicism is not a phenomenon that is confined to Africa; even those who inhabit the enlightened West are afflicted by it. In Europe, a survey of nearly 8 000 people across France, Germany, Italy and the UK – which was conducted by France’s Cevipof political research centre and whose results were released last month – showed widespread levels of belief in coronavirus- and vaccine-related conspiracy theories in all four countries. Mistrust was highest in France. Thirty-six per cent of respondents in that country stated that governments were working with pharmaceuticals companies to cover up vaccine risks, as did 32% of respondents in Italy and Germany and 31% in the UK. Further, 42% of French respondents, 41% in the UK, 40% in Italy and 39% in Germany felt that governments were exploiting the pandemic to control and monitor citizens.
With respect to vaccine acceptance, the French were again the wariest – only 49% of respondents in that country said they were likely to be, or had already been, vaccinated against Covid-19, compared with 80% in the UK, 76% in Italy and 66% in Germany. The reasons for the reticence ranged from concerns about possible side effects, little information about the vaccines or the coronavirus, doubts about the efficacy of the vaccines and general mistrust about vaccines.
Across the Atlantic, in the US, a poll whose results were also published in February – more than one-and-a-half months into the country’s vaccination drive – showed that, while 67% of Americans planned to be vaccinated or had already been vaccinated, 15% were certain they would not, while 17% said they probably won’t take the jab.
This cynicism is not helpful at all.