Even with high turnout for the jab, Covid-19 threat quite high

Waiting lists across the country have been fairly long following the launch of the national vaccination drive last week.

As the drive rests on the consignment of Johnson & Johnson vaccines the government received from the United States, many will not be able to be vaccinated right away.

A substantial chunk of the over one million doses was spent on frontline and at-risk groups such as healthcare providers, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. This was mainly an aspect of the doubt-erasing initial part of the campaign, which is by and large settled.

There was even a problem of assisting people in filling the consent forms, especially those who can barely read or write, as the vaccination operation was being launched.

The more notable or high-drive zones were apparently the commercial capital (Dar es Salaam), the national capital (Dodoma), the Lake Victoria zone with its bustling population and the tourism circuit of the three northern regions.

We may need a few weeks to know for sure how effectively the targeted groups were reached, which in the circumstances is still the lesser of two vexing issues.

The first is the pace of the wave of infections, quite often tied up with little time for being treated although many survive when their bodies are resistant enough.

The mere fact that the total number of vaccine doses that the government went about distributing is just over one million suggests how much of the population can actually be reached. But if concern is narrowed to frontline health staff and the elderly, while the sick ones are old too, it shall work.

No one can say that the anti-vaccine group is now fully converted, but their numbers will presumably be thinning out. Listening to various notable preachers and religious authorities generally, there is no dispute as to the necessity of being vaccinated.

Still, in that a certain school of thought had even opposed the wearing of masks, it must be accepted that in society everything is possible.

When one believes oneself to be in good health, while also trusting that one can withstand an infection and thus opts not to take the jab, infecting others is irrelevant.

To this clearly selfish position one might add a line or two about faith – also merely about personal security. Yet, it is vital that community security take precedence.