A few weeks ago, Zimbabwe was refused one million doses of
the Johnson and Johnson vaccine offered through the Africa covac initiative
under the pretext the country did not have the extra cold facility required to
store the vaccine. Now we know the real reason was because Zimbabwe’s Medicine
Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) had not approved the vaccine.
“ZIMBABWE may soon start administering the single dose
Johnson and Johnson vaccine following approval by the Medicines Control
Authority of Zimbabwe,” reported Bulawayo 24.
“The authority approved the use of Johnson and Johnson last week saying the
vaccine had passed quality, safety and efficacy checks.
“The American vaccine is the fifth to be approved in Zimbabwe after the Chinese
Sinopharm and Sinovac, the Russian Sputnik V and the Indian Covaxin.”
Talk of someone being frivolous and facetious, MCAZ is frivolous,
facetious and, worst of all, foolishly irresponsible!
On 27th February 2021, nearly six months ago, the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization
(EUA) of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. FDA has long since given the
vaccine its full approval even after it was found to cause blood clot in very
rare cases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the rest of the world have
all approved the vaccine, all except the odd ball, MCAZ!
Of course, MCAZ does not have the technical expertise to carry
out its own analysis of any vaccine trial data much less to initiate the
clinical trials of its own. So, God knows what these “quality, safety and
efficacy checks” are MCAZ has been carrying out and the checks were so
important MCAZ could not be rushed into giving an EUA so the country can accept
the offered the vaccine!
The irony is MCAZ approved the use of the Chinese vaccines long
before WHO gave the vaccines the EUA. Many countries have not given the Chinese
vaccines the EUA much less the full approval because the Chinese have not provided
the detailed clinical trial data for peer review and verification.
The China claimed its Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have an
efficacy of 77% plus after two doses but have not released the scientific data
for verification. A leading Chinese scientist involved in the clinical trials
of the vaccine has revealed the efficacy of the two vaccines is as low as 30% -
a position supported by the reality on the ground.
Countries like Chile and China itself have reported of many of
the people who have received the two doses of the Chinese vaccines, catching
the highly contagious delta variant corona virus and going on to develop
serious health problems and many have died.
Many people who had many of the WHO approved vaccines such
as the Oxford/Astra and Johnson and Johnson vaccine have too caught the delta
variant the important difference is that very few of they have developed serious
health problems and even fewer have died.
To date, 1.4 million and 0.7 million Zimbabweans have
received one vaccine jab and two jabs respectively of one or other of the two Chinese
vaccines. And last month, the country took delivery of 2.5 million doses of the
Chinese vaccines!
Zimbabwe is in the middle of a third wave of the corona
virus in which 80% of the cases have the highly contagious delta variant. The
government is reportedly ramping up its vaccination programme which, until now,
has been very sluggish to say the least. The regime has promised to fully
vaccinate 10 million people required to achieve herd immunity by the end of the
year!
As things stand, the country will once again reject the
Oxford/Astra, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and all the other WHO approved vaccines,
even if they were offered as happened with Johnson and Johnson vaccine the facetious
MCAZ has not approved any of these vaccines! And so the country is going full steam
ahead with its vaccination programme using the Chinese vaccines, regardless
they are not so effective against the delta variant.
“Zimbabwe refused 1 m Johnson and Johnson vaccines awaiting MCAZ approval, six months after the USA’s FDA approval!” Whom are we kidding with all this facetious buffoonery!
@ Koni
ReplyDelete“Polad is a group of political hoodlums who have lost an election and masquerading as our political messiahs. The organisation has so far achieved nothing since its time of inception and has been abrogated by disuse.
The international global community really knows what is happening on the ground and will not be swayed by such theatrics.
President Mnangagwa is very easy to read his next move. He once tried it when he militarily took over from Mugabe where he congratulated MDC-ALLIANCE leader Nelson Chamisa as opposition leader and later congratulated Thokozani Khupe as the official leader of opposition and was actually sworn in parliament after Chamisa refused to join Polad.
Mnangagwa thrives on targeting and manipulating the weak for his benefit for example the likes of Khupe, Mwonzora, Gutu just to mention a few.
Those who have received cars will surely sanitize and legitimize the Emmerson Mnangagwa's regime which is struggling to get global attention.
They want to help rig the election on behalf of Zanu PF because they know that they do not have that much traction on the ground to be able to influence people.
On paper they have already joined Zanu PF as part of the agreement. Zanu PF always enjoy being accompanied by an opposition which does not challenge its status quo.”
I totally agree, POLAD is a Mnangagwa project designed to sanitize and legitimize the vote rigging Zanu PF regime. But that is only half the story; all the politicians, including Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti and the rest of the MDC A leaders, who participating in the 2018 elections knowing fully well that the process was flawed and illegal gave the process credibility and by extension gave the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
It is foolish to keep complaining after the event that Zanu PF rigged the elections when everyone knew all along that unless reforms are implemented first, Zanu PF will rig the elections guaranteed. Lest we forget it was the MDC leaders who failed to implement even one reforms when they are the golden opportunity to do so.
Chamisa and company have participated in these flawed elections because they were after the few gravy train seats, the generous MP salaries and allowances, a share of the Political Party Finance Act, etc.; the bait Zanu PF has been giving away to entice the opposition to participate. Chamisa chose not to join POLAD and get more goodies but only as a way of piling the pressure of Mnangagwa to grant him and his MDC friends more privileges separate from the rest of the opposition.
The greatest damage to the nation of legitimizing the vote rigging Zanu PF was the act of participating in flawed and illegal elections, joining POLAD is only a small part of this damage.
@ Taruvinga
ReplyDelete“Firstly, the law clearly states that only those that got at least 5% of the votes are eligible for a share under the Political Parties Finance Act.
There is nowhere in law where extreme losers of election are rewarded.
The fact that the second presidential candidate who is Nelson Chamisa, according to ZEC fake results, did not get the car points to massive corruption. Rewarding those that caused the ballot paper to have a long list.”
You are 100% correct that the 2018 elections were rigged. Nelson Chamisa and company all knew that with no meaningful democratic reforms in place, the elections would be rigged. "MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" boasted Chamisa.
Why did Chamisa, Tendai Biti and the rest of his MDC A friends participate in the elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections?
Answer: greed! Chamisa and company knew Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in the flawed and illegal elections; a honey trap they have found irresistible.
OK Chamisa and a few others did not want to join POLAD but that really did not matter because by participating in the elections all the opposition opportunists had given legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. The real damage was in participating in the elections not in joining POLAD!
There have been incidents of violence by ruling party and opposition supporters across the country in the run-up to the vote.
ReplyDeleteThe president, in deploying the army, cited the killing of two ruling party supporters in the capital, saying he would not allow that to be repeated elsewhere in the country.
The electoral body has said it is investigating the incident and will take action against those found responsible.
The president is running for a second term in the elections.
His main opponent is Hakainde Hichilema who has unsuccessfully contested for the presidency five times.
So, many, many countries in Africa have all but failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. Why?
The fault lays with the corrupt and incompetent opposition they lack the common sense to ensure that even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll is in place before the elections. The incumbent party will only be glad to exploit such flaws and illegalities to hang on to power.
In Zimbabwe everyone with even half a working brain has recommend that the country must implement a number of democratic reforms to stop the country’s curse of rigged elections. MDC leaders not only wasted the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU they are they ones insisting in the elections going ahead with no reforms in place.
Chamisa and company are always claiming to have devised plans to win rigged elections – a very tall order given Zanu PF’s iron grip on power. Even if there was to be regime change, Zimbabweans can be 100% certain the new government will not implement the reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections because the system will be favouring them as the incumbent government.
The opposition are corrupt, incompetent and inpatient to push through the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. “Rega dzichochonye, mazai haana muto!” (Let the eggs hatch and then you will have meat!) so goes the Shona adage! Sadly, such advice is wasted on the likes of Nelson Chamisa and company.
By participating in flawed and illegal elections the opposition are giving the vote rigging ruling parties legitimacy. The ruling party will resist reforms as along as they are assured the opposition will participate regardless the flaws and illegalities!
A new town is set to be born between Mvuma-Chivhu and Manhize where Tsingshan Group Holdings, a Fortune 500 listed company is set to build a world class iron and steel plant that will also come with ferrochrome furnaces.
ReplyDeleteHow many times has the nation heard about these mega deal projects from Zanu PF and their Chinese handlers and more often than not nothing come of it. The few occurs these projects have come to fruition the chief beneficiaries have always been the Chinese, they have brought in Chinese workers at all level right down to the wheelbarrows pushing labourers.
Chris Mutsvangwa is a big-mouth, well known for making a big song and dance over nothing!
Dr Mavaza
ReplyDelete“Whilst the daily figures on death rates from coronavirus have been published for us all to consider, the longer term impact for those who have died due to negligence is still to unfold and become clear.
Each day patients are being treated badly in clinics hospitals and in private clinics.
Why is the ministry of health not seeing what is happening and intervene? How are the private clinics able to gain foundation status while clinical standards are so poor? Why is the ministry not putting pressure on the regulatory bodies to act sooner and to investigate a clinic whose mortality rate had been significantly higher than the average. The public deserve answers.”
You are right, the conditions in our hospitals and clinics is deplorable; the country’s health care service has all but collapsed.
From reading this article, someone will be tempted to believe it is only the private clinics and hospitals that are failing the patients. The reality is the situation in the public clinics and hospitals is a lot worse than that in the private clinics and hospitals.
Decades of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown have touched every sector of Zimbabwe society including private clinics and hospitals who have a chronic shortage of facilities, equipment, medicine and staff. It is impossible to deliver a five-star health service without the material and human resources.
Still the private clinics and hospitals are infinitely better resourced that the government run public clinics and hospitals. When VP Constantino Chiwenga took over as the country’s Minister of Heath, he promised to turn the public health care service into a five-star service; it was all hot air, of course.
It is typical of the shameless Dr Mavaza to go to town criticizing the private clinics and hospitals who, like the rest of the people out there, are the helpless victims of decades of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule and yet has nothing to say to the corrupt and vote rigging thugs themselves. What a hypocrite, you can see the speck in the private sector but not the log in the public sector!
VP Chiwenga is in China right now, he flew there is a private jet. Why are you not asking him, why he and his fellow ruling elite have been flying overseas for medical attention and not use the country’s clinics and hospitals?
The Harare city Council says it is failing to manage the number of patients visiting their clinics with Covid-19 and other ailments due to a shortage of nurses.
ReplyDeleteActing Harare City Mayor, Stewart Mutizwa says the local authority is being deserted by health staff which is going for greener pastures.
People are queuing for the Chinese corona virus vaccines not knowing they are not so effective especially against the delta variant that is sweeping the nation! It is better than nothing and yet it must weigh heavily on the nation’s ruling elite that the nation should find itself in such a precarious position especial when they turned down the offer of the more effective Johnson and Johnson vaccine!
Seke Mutema
ReplyDeleteEven those people who took the Astra Zeneca,Pfizer and J&J vaccines are catching corona here in Europe,USA and elsewhere.This is why they are talking of booster jab, Wilbert.”
Let me say this from the onset, I am grateful to the Chinese for producing their two corona virus vaccines just as I am grateful to all the other nations out there who did the same. Great work, well done!
My rancour is solely directed at the pompous Zanu PF regime whose primary concern is to retain its iron grip on power and cares not at the human suffering and lives lost needlessly. There is no scientific justification why Zimbabwe refused to accept the American vaccine Johnson and Johnson vaccine when it had been approved by FDA and many other nations. Meanwhile the pompous idiots approved the Chinese vaccines for political reasons, the Chinese never released any scientific data on their vaccines.
Now it is clear the Chinese vaccines are not very effective especially against the delta corona virus variant.
Millions of Zimbabweans are being vaccinating with vaccines that are not as effective as the vaccine the regime rejected. Like it or not that foolish decision is causing untold human suffering and thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives will be lost unnecessarily. Someone has to point out at all this madness!
Some funeral parlours in Bulawayo are reportedly demanding payment to conduct Covid-19 tests on people who die at home.
ReplyDeleteBut health officials say that is not the mandate of the funeral service providers.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were charged US$40 for a covid-19 test for their grandfather who died at home.
Bulawayo Health Services Director, Dr Edwin Sibanda, said it is not the mandate of funeral parlours to conduct Covid-19 tests.
"We test everybody from unknown death cases brought to hospitals is all I can say," said Dr Sibanda.
Acting Bulawayo Provincial Medical Director, Dr Welcome Mlilo also said the health authorities are the ones who conduct Covid-19 tests for sudden community deaths.
"No, parlours don't do Covid-19 testing, that would be highly irregular," said Dr Mlilo.
"Parlors can liaise and the body is tested at the central hospitals," he said.
The reality is that many people who had the corona virus infection and/or died of the virus were never tested and/or the number added to the national figures; that is why Zimbabwe’s corona virus cases and deaths are unusually low.
@ Hopewell Chin’ono
ReplyDelete“Any Zimbabwean who applauds this is an Idiot without self-respect for both themselves and these people who are being humiliated!
Ask yourselves why these people are living like rats!
Who is responsible?
Why do they need donations? Who is responsible?
Musa remare pfungwa mhani vafanha!!! [don’t be crazy]”
You have hit the nail on the head there my brother, Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess precisely because Zimbabwean have stopped using their heads!
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did not implement even one meaningful democratic reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU because the idiots believed MDC had such mass support the party would win the elections regardless of all Zanu PF’s attempts to rig the elections. What is more, many ordinary Zimbabweans believe this nonsense and still do to this day.
Zimbabweans participated in the 2018 elections buoyed by Chamisa’s claim “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” By participating, Zimbabweans gave vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy, only village idiots would not see the sheer folly of participating.
Sadly, Zimbabweans are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections buoyed by Chamisa’s promise of a “solid plan for real change!” The essence of the plan involves participating in the flawed and illegal elections and hope to win!
Of course, the very idea of hoping to win rigged elections is insane! The sane will demand the implementation of the democratic reforms and settle the matter of free, fair and credible elections once and once for all after 41 years of dithering. “Hupenzi inyama yegakava!” (Idiots are foolish and stubborn!) as one would say in Shona.
According to MDC Alliance Youth Assembly Secretary General Gift Ostallos Siziba, President Chamisa will never betray the suffering people of Zimbabwe:
ReplyDeleteOn Polad and government stipends: President @nelsonchamisa levels of clarity and consistency remain unmatched.
Comrades here is a man who has stood with his word when some thought he will waiver & betray our people.
He remains Zimbabwe’s young political crusader with a vision. Lead.
The trouble with some people is that they have very short memories. “Kukanganwa chezuro nehope!” (Some forget yesterday’s troubles after night’s sleep!), as one would say in Shona.
MDC have failed to deliver even one meaningful democratic change in all their 21 years, 5 of which in the GNU, on the political centre stage; if that is not betrayal then what is!
Chamisa dragged the nation into the 2018 elections by insisting “MDC A has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” Of course, he was lying and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the elections.
Chamisa and company knew that Zanu PF was going to rig the elections and yet still wanted to participate because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats and that they found irresistible.
To keep on the pretext that MDC leaders have not betrayed the people is just nonsense!
@ Nsele
ReplyDeleteSadly, Zimbabwe does have many individuals like Seke Mutema, liarsand brain-dead. And, worst of all, these individuals have the vote and are the ones keeping both Zanu PF and MDC in power and hence the reason Zimbabwe is stuck in this hell-on-earth of our own making!
This delta variant has taken a heavy toll in human lives in Zimbabwe and only the naive and gullible will still believe the official figure of 3 919 corona virus deaths since the outbreak. Who are we deceiving with all these lies and, more significantly, what is the true price we are paying for all these lies? There is no doubt that our failure to test and keep track of the virus has only helped it to spread.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to note that the vaccination programme is still way off target. The regime has promised to vaccinate the target 10 million herd immunity by the end of the year, i.e. administer 20 million jabs and so far has only administered 3 million in 6 months!
What is more, like it or not the Chinese vaccines are not effective against the delta variant and it is foolish to soldier on regardless. Again, who are we kidding!
An undertaker who works at the Nyaradzo funeral home, but did not want to be identified, told the Guardian that he is preparing 30 bodies for burial each day adding that most of them are Covid-related. He added:
ReplyDeleteJuly was really busy; I sometimes knocked off around midnight. This has taken a huge toll on my body too as I am always tired. The third wave has killed a lot of people.
So one undertaker has buried 30 bodies in one day, even if one assumed only half of them were corona virus cases; how is it possible that the whole country reported of only 19 dying of the virus? There is no doubt that Zanu PF is lying about the corona virus cases and deaths in the country.
One way the regime has perpetrated the corona virus lie is by failing to test for the virus – many people who should have been send into isolation because they had the virus have been allowed to mix freely with the rest and thus spreading the virus far and wide. How many lives have been lost if only the regime had tested and told the people the truth?
How long have Zimbabweans known the regime has been lying to them about the corona virus and they have done nothing about it?