Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | As Ugandans wait for President Yoweri Museveni to fully reopen the country next month, experts are saying, future public health crises should be managed using a human rights approach.
Speaking at the 9th Virtual Townhall Meeting on Dec.06, Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights lawyer and executive director at Chapter Four Uganda, said covid management has seen the government of Uganda become intolerant to alternative views “and that is the problem that we must discuss urgently.”
Opiyo, said, the pandemic management, combined with the recent political elections in Uganda, have seen a complete disregard of peoples’ freedoms and worsened the status of the poor people.
For instance, he said, by closing places of worship and putting restrictions onto them, was unfair given that people believe more in leaders at their worship places than they do to elected leaders of late.
He also faulted religious leaders who have gone to ‘bed’ with the regime for money reasons and abandoned the Christian call for advocating for freedom of worship.
“We must begin to find a balance between managing a health problem and respecting freedoms of the people,” Opiyo said, “…people must be given the right to maintain individual autonomy and choice.”
Carla Peeters, an Immunologist based in the Netherlands said, COVID-19 is now more known by scientists and can easily be managed which is why restrictions must be out of the way.
She also said, new variants like Omicron that had earlier been feared, have not claimed any life, which is good news.
Peeters said, improving the population’s immune system and not imposing tough lockdowns would be an ideal solution to managing the pandemic going forward.
She also said, the use of PCR tests as a mechanism to fight covid has had some gaps given that asymptomatic patients at times become difficult to deal with when results do not come through as expected.
Peeters added, covid restrictions are a disaster themselves because they are linked to depression and obesity in some communities.
“Natural immunity could help open up the whole society,” she said. She added, with the current levels of vaccination in Uganda, Covid restrictions are not necessary. “Freedom of people is important to deliver healthy lives,” she said.
Wisdom K Peter, a gospel minister with a medical background, who also filed a case in the high court against the continued abuse of freedom of worship in Uganda, disagreed vehemently with government’s move to curtail freedom of worship, arguing that Uganda and Africa are truly lovers of Christian values.
“It has increasingly become clear that this covid is not a crisis but an agenda,” he said, “there has not been any respect for sociological setting for Africa.”
“Our unity has never been needed before more than it is needed today,” he said, before describing himself as a man of God, “any remedies have got to respect our love for spiritual beliefs…and we should know that natural selection is real.”
He said, religious leaders, politicians, scientists that have presented alternative views on COVID-19 lockdowns have been confronted by those with authority – something he said was expected.
“Lockdowns have to do with fear, but opening up economies has a lot to do with hope and faith,” he said.
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