The Fatboy Show host Olive Najjuma has questioned why children should be vaccinated against Covid 19 when the scientific evidence showed that the Omicron variant isn't as lethal as the previous strains such as Delta.
She made the query after the Ministry of Health on Thursday Last week announced that vaccination of children is to take place during the school term which is to begin on May 9, 2022.
According to Minister Jane Ruth Aceng, secondary school learners are to be vaccinated with a double dose of the Pfizer vaccine which will be administered four weeks apart.
Fatboy questioned the efficacy of the vaccination after scientific reports indicated that the available vaccine(s) are not effective against the Omicron variant.
“But it is not even lethal, why are we even vaccinating children?” Olive asked. “I've also heard stories of children that have died after being vaccinated with Pfizer!” She added.
Noting that a number of vaccines have been reported to have side effects that are ‘negligible’ but don't underscore the usefulness of the vaccine according to experts, Fatboy was more concerned about the dosages to be administered to the children. He asked that if children are to be vaccinated with two doses, of what significance would it be for them to receive two when other countries are administering fourth boosters.
Olive additionally expressed concern querying whether children are to be vaccinated because the country cares for them or because it is to get rid of un administered vaccines.
“Apparently, Covid 19 is not currently in our country because we only have 2 cases in the entire Uganda on admission in hospitals. So are we vaccinating the kids to get rid of the vaccine doses that we have because adults are not taking them?” She asked.
According to the Ministry of Health, 14000 children have contracted Covid 19 since March 2020 in Uganda. The Health Minister Jane Ruth on Wednesday last week said that vaccination of children will reduce the spread of the virus in schools, She advised children to avoid absenteeism when that time comes.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.