When Africans asked for COVID shots, they didn't get them. Now they don't want them

Driving through busy streets on the outskirts of the Gambian capital, workers from the health ministry announced that vaccines are available on the spot if people wish to get their COVID shots.

The team managed to convince truck driver Adama Cessay.

"I wanted to do it, I had even heard that they were at the police office but as I am a driver until now, I did not have the opportunity to go and get vaccinated against COVID-19. I do it to protect myself but also to go to other countries like Senegal," he said.

Unfortunately, Cessay was only one of 10 people in the team led by the ministry of health worker; Joseph Mendy managed to get vaccinated that day.

While picking up Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses at the ministry, Mendy said he expected to vaccinate about 300 people, though he knew convincing them would be hard work.

“It is still complicated though because we have to talk to them before you start the actual process, you have to convince them that the vaccine is safe, is good, is beneficial before they take it. Now we are going to a university so most of them are already getting the information," he said.

Once set up at the university campus, Mendy only encountered refusal after refusal, students either ignored him or said they were too afraid of needles.

After spending five hours trying to convince students, Mendy decided to try another location.

“This is frustrating. This is the situation we found ourselves in. It is difficult, so we will try another area we try our chance and to talk to them and see whether it will work,” he said.

Misinformation is also tough to unglue on a continent where sickness is often seen as resulting from supernatural forces, and where big pharmaceutical companies have in the past run dubious clinical trials resulting in deaths.

“If they inject the vaccine, they might have a side effect in your body you may ending losing your life so, that's why," said Bai Mbowe a student at the University of The Gambia.

The country's experience is not unique on the continent.

Only 17% of Africa's 1.3 billion population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 - versus above 70% in some countries - in part, because richer nations hoarded supply last year. When global demand was greatest, to the chagrin of African nations desperate for international supplies.

Now though, as doses finally arrive in force in the continent, inoculation rates are falling. The number of shots administered dropped 35% in March, World Health Organization data shows, erasing a 15% rise seen in March. People are less afraid now. Misinformation about vaccines has festered.

That worries public health specialists who say that leaving such a large population unvaccinated increases the risk of new variants emerging on the continent before spreading to regions such as Europe just as governments there abandon mask mandates and travel restrictions.

In a sign of possible perils to come, cases of an Omicron subvariant have shot up in recent weeks in South Africa, the continent's worst-hit nation, prompting officials there to warn of the fifth wave of infections.

In Sierra Leone, where 14% of the population is fully vaccinated, radio stations sometimes refuse to broadcast the government's pro-vaccine messages because of unpaid invoices, said Solomon Jamiru, the country's COVID-19 spokesman.

A World Bank fund for vaccine purchases and rollouts has sent $3.6 billion to sub-Saharan Africa. Of that, only $520 million has been spent. Amit Dar, the bank's human development director for Eastern and Southern Africa, said outdated health systems had struggled to absorb the funding.

 

Health experts say more funding was needed at the start of the pandemic for logistics and training.

Niger, where 6% are fully vaccinated, lacks enough cold storage for vaccines in its vast rural areas, or motorbikes to distribute them, according to the World Bank.

In Zambia, where coverage is 11%, officials are planning outreach campaigns but worry they won't be able to cover the cost of feeding doctors working far from home or pay for their transport.

The virus did not rip through African countries with the same devastating effect as in other regions.

Youthful populations and low testing rates camouflaged its spread and blunted fears.

Now the continent has too many COVID-19 vaccine doses. Vaccination sites lie empty; millions of unused vials are piling up, and one of Africa's first COVID-19 vaccine producers is still waiting for an order.

To boost uptake, countries including Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Kenya are focusing on mobile vaccination campaigns that visit communities. But finances are stretched.

Health workers in bright yellow vests fanned out across the busy market stalls and stores of western Accra, one with a cool box slung over his shoulder containing COVID-19 vaccine shots, asking wary shoppers if they would like to receive an injection.

After an hour of toiling in the baking sun, the team administered just four doses.

"The strategy is to move to the community, move from door to door to convince them, to talk to them, to tell them how important the vaccine is, the role the vaccine plays in curbing the disease and all this," said Joseph Dwomor Ankrah, who manages Ghana's COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

Ghana, one of Africa's most developed economies and one applauded for its early inoculation surge, has a funding gap of $30 million to carry out another campaign, according to the World Bank. Irregular power supply jeopardizes the vaccine cold chain. Doses expire.