{"id":226785,"date":"2021-02-06T07:12:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T07:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=226785"},"modified":"2021-02-09T08:11:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T08:11:34","slug":"tanzania-rejects-covid-19-vaccines-promotes-herbs-despite-spike-in-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=226785","title":{"rendered":"Tanzania Rejects Covid-19 Vaccines, Promotes Herbs Despite Spike in Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Introduction \u2013 Feb 5, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Tanzania\u2019s response to Covid-19 seems refreshingly realistic and sensible. However, we have to wonder how long common sense will prevail because Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza had also dismissed Covid-19. In fact he did more than that. The Burundian president ordered the expulsion of World Health Organisation personnel responsible for \u2018advising\u2019 on the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Then the 55-year-old who had never had any heart problems, suddenly dropped <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=208931\">dead from a heart attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Whereupon, his successors took the reins of power, reversed Nkurunziza\u2019s policies on coronavirus and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=210500\">welcomed back WHO personnel<\/a>. We would suggest that Tanzanian government ministers and health officials watch their backs to avoid a repetition of events in Burundi. Ed.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Tanzania Rejects Covid-19 Vaccines, Promotes Herbs Despite Spike in Deaths<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>All Africa, via Radio France Internationale &#8212; Feb 4, 2021<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Tanzania&#8217;s health ministry this week announced it has no plans to accept Covid-19 vaccines, maintaining that the eastern African nation does not have the virus. However, Tanzanians speaking to friends and family say that a number of people have died from the virus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The sources we&#8217;ve been talking to say some of their colleagues and family members have passed on because of Covid-19, but this week they are saying that talking about Covid in Tanzania is a taboo,&#8221; RFI Kiswahili service editor Emmanuel Makundi tells <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/podcasts\/africa-calling\/\">Africa Calling podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He says that their sources are reporting a spike in deaths, but neither the government nor the families are officially confirming it was due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/tag\/coronavirus\/\">coronavirus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Although we know that the first Vice President of Zanzibar, Maalim Seif <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecitizen.co.tz\/tanzania\/news\/zanzibar-s-first-vice-president-maalim-seif-hospitalised-after-claims-of-testing-positive-for-covid-19-3275624\">Sherif Hamad, has contracted Covid<\/a> and is receiving treatment in the hospital, so it&#8217;s a real thing,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Local herbs and steam preventatives<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Tanzania&#8217;s Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima spoke at a press conference this week calling for Tanzanians to use steam inhalation, a remedy debunked by health experts globally. She wasn&#8217;t wearing a mask while speaking, claiming that Tanzania is safe.<\/p>\n<p>Others in the health ministry have called for Tanzanians to use local herbs to cure Covid-19.<\/p>\n<p>Makundi, who has been following the story closely for the RFI Kiswahili service, says that the reason for the government to deny coronavirus in Tanzania is unknown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It does exist in the East African region, and Tanzania is not an island,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The religion council this week has warned its worshippers to take all precautions to ensure they don&#8217;t shake hands unnecessarily, they don&#8217;t go to the gatherings, they put on their mask, they wash their hands with water or sanitizer,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n<p>While Makundi&#8217;s sources say they are wearing masks, others even in the lower ranks of government are refusing to wear masks nor deal with those who do.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last week they were telling me that one of the mayors of Kilimanjaro, before he started the council meeting told people wearing masks, &#8216;Please take off your mask before we continue with this meeting,'&#8221; says Makundi.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So you can imagine those wearing masks, they cannot sit comfortably, especially in public places,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Suspicion over vaccines<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In January, President John Magufuli said that vaccines were fake and Tanzanian people should be careful, says Makundi, adding that the president claimed the vaccine was not good for conception.<\/p>\n<p>Fears about the various vaccines being dangerous for conception or harmful to pregnant women have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.webmd.com\/vaccines\/covid-19-vaccine\/news\/20210112\/why-covid-vaccines-are-falsely-linked-to-infertility\">debunked by medical experts<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Gwajima said this week that Tanzania had no plans to take Covid-19 vaccines, but did not close the door completely, saying that any vaccines would need to receive ministry approval.<\/p>\n<p>Tanzania is eligible for the international <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gavi.org\/covax-facility\">COVAX effort<\/a> overseen by the World Health Organisation for low and middle income countries.<\/p>\n<p>Although Magufuli is decrying vaccines, he observed social distancing at a government meeting this week.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afro.who.int\/\">WHO Africa<\/a> head Dr Matshidiso Moeti urged Tanzania to hand over statistics on Covid-19. The country has not reported any cases since late April, as Magufuli said that God had eliminated the deadly virus from the country.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TANZANIA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TANZANIA<\/a>: PS of the Health Ministry, Prof. Mabula Mchembe has urged citizens to ignore information on social media that there are <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19<\/a> patients admitted at Hospitals in Dar es Salaam<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Mabula insists that not every patient facing &#8216;hard-to-breathe challenges&#8217; has Corona. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KktSNNMi8q\">pic.twitter.com\/KktSNNMi8q<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/202102040572.html\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Common sense over Covid-19 appears to have prevailed in Tanzania, but for how long?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226786,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226785\/revisions\/226786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}