“After I received the jab, my national identity card details were written into a green vaccination card bearing the Ministry of Health logo. Tawakali was vaccinated at Limbe Health Centre in Blantyre. Our church approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine since it doesn’t involve direct blood contact but it also gave us, as Witnesses, the choice to get the jab at our own will.” Patrick Tawakali, a 63-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, says, “We don’t eat animals that have died on their own and we don’t receive or donate blood, amongst other beliefs. Minister of Health, Khumbize Chiponda described the endorsement as an important milestone, especially considering some of the rules around medical and surgical care, in particular blood transfusions, amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses. For example, prior to the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Malawi, Jehovah’s Witness was the first independent Christian denomination in Malawi to endorse the vaccine. While there has been some discomfort in religious circles, the majority have been at the forefront of being vaccinated, setting an example for their congregations. Protecting Uganda’s overstretched health workers through COVAX.“I can only run away from death for so long”: Vaccinating Elders in Eswatini.
No VIP treatment: Malawi aims for an equitable COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.
Nothing negative has happened to me, and I’m still observing COVID-19 preventive measures.” The Ngoni Chief also emphasised that being vaccinated does not mean relaxing COVID-19 preventive measures: “It’s been almost a month since I took the jab.
#JEHOVAH WITNESS VACCINE UPDATE#
Prioritisation of the elderly is a Malawian sign of preservation of our culture, whose custodians are the elderly,” he said in a COVID-19 daily update meeting aired on the national broadcaster, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, on 30 March, 2021. Leaders should lead in spreading the positive information about the COVID-19 vaccine when it’s their turn for their village to be vaccinated. He says that it was important for him to lead by example because he cannot be a leader without the people. Inkosi ya Makosi Mbelwa of Mzimba was one of the people to take the first jab in the northern region. Health workers were the first to receive the jab followed by people in uniform (the police and the military), social workers, the elderly (60+) and those with underlying health issues.īeyond getting the vaccine, many other community role models have taken up the mantle of encouraging their communities to get vaccinated. For the Malawian government, no-one is safe until everyone is safe and everyone, including traditional and religious leaders, are playing their part in ensuring that as many people as possible take the vaccine.įollowing this, the COVID-19 vaccination rollout commenced in all of Malawi’s 28 districts through the District Health Offices. Lazarus Chakwera, the First Lady, Vice President Saulos Chilima, religious leaders, notably Archbishop Thomas Luke Msusa of the Catholic Church, and traditional leaders were vaccinated. Six days days later, Malawian President Dr. In Matthew (and elsewhere), Jesus tells his disciples that the first and great commandment is to love the “Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” But Jesus continues by naming the second great commandment, which is “like unto it,” namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.On 5 March 2021, the plane carrying a consignment of 360,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was welcomed with much pomp and jubilation as it landed at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city. Did these same evangelicals also refuse the rubella or the smallpox vaccines? Or polio, in an earlier generation? Did they simply ignore the commonsense requirement to vaccinate their children before sending them to school or summer camp? And more to the point, how do they weigh such fears against the possibility of killing one’s neighbor by carrying and spreading the disease?įor evangelicals, who profess fealty to the Bible, the vaccine mandate should be clear. The sacred temple argument is also deeply inconsistent. This attitude flies in the face of the known safety of the vaccines. Paul declared, should be treated as sacred. Some evangelicals argue that they deserve a religious exemption from getting vaccinated because their body is a temple that, as St.
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