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Herald Correspondent
Like many developing countries around the world, Zimbabwe is set to receive its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines from China on Monday, a development that sets in motion the journey for a return to normalcy in all sectors.
In the midst of such good news, there have been some mischievous characters trying to politicise the issue to discredit the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines obtained from China, even before they land.
It seems that the major problem is that many are mixing politics with health issues, in a bid to spoil the good relations between Zimbabwe and the Asian economic giant.
The criticism is not justified, these are the same vaccines that China has been distributing to many other countries after clinical tests were done in the Asian country.
The fact is that China cannot risk its international reputation by sending unverified vaccines to the world.
What will happen on Monday is that Zimbabwe will receive its first batch of 800 000 jabs from China to start the process of immunising 10 million people against the virus.
The batch will consist of 200 000 donated jabs from the Chinese Government, plus 600 000 more purchased by the Government of Zimbabwe from the same country.
An aircraft will be dispatched by Zimbabwe to China today to collect the vaccines.
Like all vaccines, the Sinopharm vaccine does not have a 100 percent efficacy, but at between 76 to 86 percent, it is one of the most effective developed so far.
To demonstrate its strength, the vaccine has been endorsed by the World Health Organisation.
The fact that China is providing or has already provided Covid-19 vaccines to more than 50 developing countries that already have inoculation programmes, clearly indicates the acceptability of the vaccines from that country.
Vaccines are also available from other sources in Europe and the United States, but these have proved difficult to access by developing countries.
But the fact that the vaccines produced in the US and Europe are not available to developing countries like Zimbabwe does not make them superior to those developed in China.
In fact, no Government can obtain vaccines it is not sure about, and if it is not sure, it can assign local scientists to have a look and make a recommendation.
But if you want to follow some of the arguments being made, especially by Government critics in Zimbabwe, then it means the country will never use a vaccine.
Yet, in the near future, vaccines will play an important role in people’s lives — whether we like it or not.
Vaccination will remain voluntary, but when the vaccines are readily available, giving a chance to everyone to get a jab, those who will resist vaccination will remain at a disadvantage.
They will be viewed as potential spreaders of Covid-19 and it will follow that no one would want to associate with them.
This is why it is an advantage to Zimbabwe that it is getting vaccines from China now when many other countries are also benefiting from the Asian country.
President Mnangagwa has since said life can only return to normal if the majority of the country’s population is vaccinated against Covid-19, making the acquiring of vaccines a priority.
More than 1 000 Zimbabweans have died so far from the disease.
To tackle the pandemic, President Mnangagwa has assured the nation that no resource would be spared to save the lives of Zimbabweans as Government sets the target of inoculating 60 percent of the country’s population to achieve herd immunity.
“Allow me to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt and sincere gratitude to the President of the People’s Republic of China, His Excellency, Xi Jinping, the Government and people of China for their kind donation of 200 000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine,” he said.
“We applaud China for taking a leading role in contributing to our national vaccine deployment strategy and for its consistent humane
“This kind gesture is in addition to the numerous donations, support and interventions made by China since the outbreak of the virus. It further attests to the fact that the People’s Republic of China is indeed a true friend of Zimbabwe, whose relations has been enhanced to strategic partnership and cooperation.”
By donating and availing Covid-19 vaccines to Zimbabwe, China is giving the country a head start, a move which must be applauded, instead of drawing negative comments.
In fact, China has decided to provide 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to the World Health Organisation’s COVAX initiative to meet the urgent needs of developing countries.
This means Zimbabwe is not the first to get the vaccines from China.
Many other countries in different regions, including Hungary, Seychelles, Pakistan, Morocco, South Africa, Guinea, Brunei, Nepal, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Palestine are benefiting.
China is mainly exporting Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines to developing countries, which have little capacity to develop or produce them, yet are in greater need of the life-saving shots than others.
Egypt’s immunisation programme got underway on Sunday, with doctors and nurses the first to receive the Sinopharm jab.
Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Guo Shaochun said China will supply the first batch of vaccine aid to 14 developing countries, and Zimbabwe is among them.
“Zimbabwe will be one of the first 14 countries to receive vaccine aid from China very soon,” he said on Twitter.
Mr Guo posted a statement from Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, who said that China had been acting on its commitment of making China-developed Covid-19 vaccines a global public good.
Pakistan became the world’s first country to receive China’s vaccine donation on Tuesday and kicked-off a large scale vaccination programme with priorities being attached to the frontline healthcare workers.
In Cambodia, Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong said China’s generous donation of Covid-19 vaccines to his country symbolised long-lasting friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
The first batch of Covid-19 vaccines donated by China arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Sunday and an inoculation drive was launched on Wednesday.
“I am confident that this valuable donation will certainly contribute to preventing the Covid-19 pandemic in Cambodia, even though we will receive, in coming months, more vaccines from dialogue partners and WHO’s Covax to inoculate millions of our people,” he said.
Peru also received its first batch of Sinopharm vaccines from China on Sunday, as the South American country is preparing for mass vaccination campaigns against Covid-19.
The examples of countries that have already received or are waiting to receive vaccines from China are far and wide, indicating the faith they place in the vaccines.
There is a huge demand for the Chinese manufactured Covid-19 vaccines throughout the world, and the fact that the Asian country has set aside some for Zimbabwe should be applauded.
China is actually doing its best to help in the spirit of the good cooperation it enjoys with Zimbabwe in various fields, including that of health care provision.
Negative comments about the Chinese vaccines emanating from some quarters are unwarranted as they are being made by people who are not experts and have never done independent tests to prove their criticism.
Instead, the Chinese vaccine went through all the processes, including under the World Health Organisation’s watch, and have been proved ready for inoculation.
Yet people with very negligible understanding of vaccines are turning to twitter, Facebook and other social networking platforms to discredit what they have no idea about.
Russia has since donated sits Sputnik V vaccine, with negotiations ongoing for the procurement of more doses, while India has promised to provide more vaccines.
Zimbabwe is expecting some vaccines through the African Union’s Covax facility
Online Reporter