Tanzania: President Rejects Late Predecessor’s Denial, Gets Coronavirus Vaccine

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Wednesday became the first national in Tanzania to receive a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, heralding a shift in public health policy for the previously coronavirus-skeptic country.

“The president received the jab in a live televised event at the Mnazi Mmoja Grounds in Dar es Salaam,” Tanzanian news site The Citizen reported on July 28.

“Many have accepted to be vaccinated while a few have rejected,” President Hassan told reporters shortly before receiving her inoculation.

“I have received many messages asking when we will start vaccination. We will make sure that whoever is willing to get vaccinated gets the jab,” she added, referring to a state-run Chinese coronavirus vaccine drive.

Several Tanzanian government officials followed Hassan in receiving their first dose of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday during the nationally televised event, including the country’s prime minister, Kassim Majaliwa.

Tanzanian Chief Justice Ibrahim Hamis Juma, Tanzanian Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima, ex-Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, Tanzanian Chief of Defense Forces Venance Mabeyo, and Tanzanian Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro all received Chinese coronavirus inoculations on July 27.

Tanzania’s government received a shipment containing more than one million doses of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine developed by the U.S.-based multinational corporation Johnson & Johnson on July 24. COVAX — a World Health Organization (W.H.O.)-led program aiming to provide poorer nations with Chinese coronavirus vaccines — shipped the inoculations to Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salam, free of charge.

Tanzania’s government “expects to receive other kinds of [Chinese coronavirus] vaccines in the coming weeks,” the country’s health minister, Dr. Dorothy Gwajima, told reporters on July 24.

One region of Tanzania, the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar, launched a Chinese coronavirus vaccine campaign two weeks ago “using China’s Sinovac vaccine,” the BBC reported on July 28.

Sinovac, also known as Sinovac-CoronaVac, is a Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by the Chinese state-run biopharmaceutical company Sinovac.

Tanzania’s current president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, took office on March 19, two days after the mysterious death of former Tanzanian President John Magufuli on March 17. Tanzanian government officials attributed Magufuli’s death to a “heart illness,” though much remains unknown surrounding the circumstances and exact cause of his untimely passing. Magufuli uncharacteristically disappeared from the public eye for nearly three weeks before the Tanzanian government broke its silence surrounding his whereabouts to announce his shock death in mid-March. The late president’s extended public absence fueled rumors he had fallen ill with a mysterious illness or possibly contracted the Chinese coronavirus.

In the weeks and months prior to his death, Magufuli pushed an agenda surrounding the Chinese coronavirus pandemic that was the exact opposite of current president Hassan’s. Magufuli refused to force Tanzanians into lockdown or to wear sanitary masks on multiple occasions. He eschewed the promotion of Chinese coronavirus vaccines the W.H.O. pushed on Africa and instead endorsed alternative, though unproven, remedies to treat the disease, such as steam inhalation and prayer.

“Vaccines are not good. If they were, then the white man would have brought vaccines for HIV/AIDS,” Magufuli said at the opening of a new farm in northwestern Tanzania’s Gaita region on January 27.

“We Tanzanians haven’t locked ourselves in and we don’t expect to lock ourselves down. I don’t expect to announce any lockdown because our God is living and He will continue to protect Tanzanians,” he said.

“We will also continue to take health precautions including the use of steam inhalation,” the late president added.

“You inhale while you pray to God, you pray while farming maize, potatoes, so that you can eat well and corona fails to enter your body. They will scare you a lot, my fellow Tanzanians, but you should stand firm,” Magufuli said.