The devastating news that three babies, under the age of one, died of Covid-19 should concern us all.
In the daily report of 18 January 2022, the ministry of health listed the three babies, who are ineligible for vaccination against Covid-19, have died of Covid-19 along with 28 others, including four people in their 90s.
Only children 12 years and older can get vaccinated against coronavirus.
The statistics regularly show babies dying from the coronavirus.
While babies cannot receive the vaccine, we, as adults, have to protect them by doing the responsible thing of getting the vaccination.
If we don’t, they die.
Vaccination is not new in this country. As children, we have had vaccines against Polio, Measles, Hepatitis B, Rubella, Tetanus and Pneumococcal disease.
Namibia was certified Polio-free in 2008, and conducts routine and national immunisation campaigns to maintain its Polio-free status.
No Namibian anti-vaxxer questioned what is in these vaccinations or even attempt to pronounce Pneumococcal (nyoo·mow·ko·kl).
Nowadays, they want to “do their own research” and “do not trust the vaccine” because they saw a video of someone on TikTok saying the vaccine is not safe.
Any Covid-19 death, regardless of age, is a painful tragedy but the facts have shown that the overwhelming majority of those who have died from Covid-19 are unvaccinated.
As this paper reported last week, numbers do not lie.
Statistics from 1 to 11 January demonstrate the benefits of vaccination convincingly: 81% of new infections, 97% hospital admissions, 94% ICU admissions and 91% Covid-19 deaths are of the unvaccinated population.
So far, 351 719 adults have completed their vaccination, translating to 23.9% of the target population.
Given that the vaccination programme is almost a year old, this rate is just simply too low.
We need more people vaccinated to eliminate the possibility of ICUs getting overrun again and people dying in hordes again.
We need parents to stay alive to raise their children. We need healthy and responsible parents who will not infect Covid-19 to their and other people’s children.
The ministry of health has repeatedly pleaded with the public to get vaccinated and that it is currently the only way for us to not fall ill, stay out of ICU and stay alive.
The government has also repeatedly asked those who believe and spread conspiracy theories and misinformation about the vaccine to stop.
Namibia has lost over 3 864 people to Covid-19.
There is no need to lose more, as the vaccination has proven effective against severe illness and death.
The government has more than enough vaccines available, mostly acquired at great cost.
During last week’s national briefing at State House, President Hage Geingob said: “People are dying. It is not propaganda; we are burying our loved ones. What more do Namibians want as proof to be convinced? Yes, it is your right, but we are saying let us get vaccinated for the common good for yourself and the country. People are dying; it is not a joke,” the president said.
While the president’s frustration is clear, punitive measures against the purveyors of misinformation could go a long way in arresting the free flow of falsehoods that drives vaccine hesitancy.
None of the flimsy arguments anti-vaxxers proffer has ever made sense – and some of these people should pay the price for their willful ignorance.
Babies should not die because adults are gullible enough to swallow whole the nonsense the conspiracy theorists have cooked up.