Why was my father denied access to the vaccine he needed?
This blog is written by Just Treatment supporter Sakina Datoo.
My name is Sakina Datoo and I’m a journalist and presenter based in Uxbridge, UK. I moved here from Tanzania back in 2009.
I’ve got a family full of doctors and medics - my husband and my younger brother among others. I have always been surrounded by medical and political debate. However, when COVID-19 struck, we were all helpless trying to feel safe in a pandemic that knew no boundaries. We were all particularly worried about my father Mohammed Kassam Dewji who was 83, vulnerable because of his age.
“The disparity gave us goosebumps”
When the vaccines started becoming available here in January 2021, my father had access to nothing in Tanzania. You couldn’t pay enough to get the vaccine. The disparity gave us goosebumps. I remember being on edge constantly, because he had no protection, and there was no guidance from the government or authorities on how to protect himself or on how to socially distance. It was all self-led.
Inevitably, COVID-19 came home with my niece who is a teacher at a school and my father fell ill. We watched from a distance, when he tried to get better but the disease took him.
If he had access to the vaccine he would have taken it. He is part of a family full of medics, in spite of the vaccine scepticism that is rife in Dar-es-Salaam. We knew and understood that vaccines were the best way of protecting ourselves. After he passed away, I remember people were flying to Dubai to access the vaccine, but it was too late for my father. The individuals who could fly to another country were lucky to be able to afford it, but what about those that couldn’t?
Since Dad passed away, I can’t find closure. Faith gives me strength to move on, but it is painful because his death was avoidable. He could still be alive today if he had access to the same vaccines that we did here in the UK.
When I look at the political messaging in the UK, there was constant data sharing practices and urges for people to get vaccinated, which they were able to do because they could lean into predictable supply. My family did not have that in Tanzania and my father paid for it, with his life.
Pharmaceutical companies who have monopolies over COVID vaccines choose to prioritise supply to higher income countries at the cost of the lives of people like my father. It is wrong and if we do not speak up about it, this gross profiteering and inequity will continue unabated in our global healthcare system.
African countries have to be able to produce their own vaccines in order to ensure their own supply and the safety of their populations. There is a wealth of talent and human ingenuity that is constantly overlooked and diminished because of the gross inequities in place. The TRIPS waiver and lifting of the intellectual properties on COVID vaccines is what’s needed to ensure self sufficiency in health, so that people like my father have a better chance at living.