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The major task of any opposition political party is to wrestle power from a ruling party, mainly by offering better alternatives.

The opposition opposes the policy direction of Government and says to voters: “We can do better.”

This is normal in any democracy.

However, in Zimbabwe, the opposition has taken its opposing role a bit too far.

Most recently, the opposition is opposing vaccination against Covid-19. It sounds like a joke, but they are as serious as a heart attack.

Vaccination is one of the greatest scientific inventions of all time.

How many people know diphtheria, a disease that can lead to heart failure, paralysis, and even death? Chickenpox, mumps, rotavirus, whooping cough, measles, hib and rubella are other diseases almost eliminated by vaccination.

As we reported yesterday, local medical experts have urged Zimbabweans to have confidence in Covid-19 vaccines sourced by Government.

President Mnangagwa has said vaccination of citizens will start this week following the arrival of 200 000 doses from China on Monday.

Zimbabwe has also purchased 600 000 jabs from China that are expected to be delivered next month while more will be purchased from Russia, after Government set aside US$100 million for vaccination.

Frontline health workers, ports of entry officials and funeral parlour workers will be among the first to be vaccinated for Covid-19. So will the chronically ill, the elderly, prisoners, those living in refugee camps and staff at all schools.

Said consultant paediatrician Dr Wedu Ndebele: “For us to get what we call herd immunity there should be enough people vaccinated to curtail or stop the transmission. Usually for you to do that you need to vaccinate about two thirds of the population and that is why we are talking of between 60 to 70 percent of the population.”

Renowned health expert, Dr Rita Dlodlo said: “I am pro-vaccination because you will note that for all the diseases for which vaccines were accessed, lives have been saved and for example, in Zimbabwe millions of children’s lives have been saved under the national immunisation programmes.

“As Covid-19 is also a threat in our community, especially productive members of the community, we need to employ all protocol measures to prevent the spread so I support the roll out programme of these vaccines. This is a way of creating immunity within a community or population.”

How can one oppose such facts, not coming from politicians but health experts?

Opposing immunisation is like opposing life itself. What are the better alternatives?

Opposing Sinopharm, in particular, does not make sense.

It is a product that was central to China’s Covid-19 success story. That is why China is working towards providing 10 million vaccine doses to COVAX, a World Health Organisation-backed global vaccine-sharing initiative.

By the end of last year, nearly 100 million doses of Sinopharm had been produced and production is expected to reach one billion doses this year.

What is there to oppose?

In any case, as we have said before, opposition leaders are free to choose not to get vaccinated. The programme is voluntary.