Link to Article: https://www.africanews.com/2021/02/03/tanzania-minister-no-interest-in-procuring-covid-19-vaccines/
On Monday, Tanzania’s health minister Dorothy Gwajima told in a press conference that “the ministry has no plans to receive vaccines for COVID-19.” This comes just days after the president of the country expressed doubt about the vaccines without offering evidence. Any vaccines that come to the country must receive ministry approval. Tanzania’s government has been widely criticized for its approach to the pandemic as it has not updated its number of coronavirus infections since April. While President John Magufuli believes that God has eliminated Covid-19, authorities from the Catholic church to government institutions, are pushing back and telling the public and employees that COVID-19 exists in the country and precautions must be taken.
Countries deciding to not get vaccinated will not make Covid-19 go away any faster. Pretending that the coronavirus does not exist is not going to just make it go away. The country of Tanzania is not even mandating the wearing of face masks, yet alone making any other precautions to fight against Covid-19. This only does the people of Tanzania a disservice because not only does it risk their lives, it will also limit the travel outside of their country. Outside countries are already advising against the travel to Tanzania, yet alone allowing the people of Tanzania to come into their country.
This goes into the whole “What should and shouldn’t the United States intervene in and why’ subject we have been talking about in International Relations literally all year. I do not believe that vaccination is something the United States can force any other country to do, especially since the United States is not making its own citizens get vaccinated. It is just a bad situation all around because the people of Tanzania who want to get vaccinated probably won’t, which will limit them enormously. All I can see the United States, or any other country, doing in response to Tanzania’s no vaccination thing is just express how important vaccination really is.