UK's approved vaccine program list ‘deeply racist’: Health activist

The United Kingdom published a list of 68 countries and territories with approved COVID-19 vaccination programs for travel. But not a single African nation is on the list.

Foreigners coming from countries on the approved vaccination list, published Monday, do not need to quarantine and only need to take a test on the second day after arrival.

The list has caused outrage and confusion — as African nations have rolled out vaccination programs based on COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency-use listing by the World Health Organization, and many of these vaccines have been donated by the U.K. to low- and middle-income countries. They are the same types of vaccines administered in countries on the U.K.’s approved list for vaccine programs.

African nations have secured vaccines through COVAX, many of which are donations from high-income countries, including the U.K., as well as through a purchase agreement with the African Union and bilateral deals. The U.K. has pledged to donate 100 million vaccines to countries in need of doses by June 2022, having already shipped millions.

Fatima Hassan, founder and director of the Health Justice Initiative in South Africa, told Devex the U.K’s stance is anti-scientific, and it “doesn’t lend itself to supporting global vaccination efforts and doesn’t give credibility to vaccination programs on an entire continent.”

“We think it's deeply racist. It’s incredulous, actually,” Hassan said.

Within the U.K.’s rules, it’s not clear whether the argument is around the legitimacy of the vaccination cards countries issue to vaccinated individuals but by that logic, Hassan said the whole of the United States should also be excluded from the approved vaccination program list — which it is not, she said, as it is issuing vaccination cards that can be easily forged. “Anybody could forge a card, anywhere in the world,” she said.

In promoting the use of vaccines, countries have argued vaccines are a key tool in opening economies and allowing citizens to return to some form of normalcy, Hassan said. “But if you can’t return to some kind of normal, and you are telling people that they would still have to quarantine, then it’s the same situation they were in last year before vaccines arrived … then people will say, if I’m still going to have to quarantine, then the vaccine is not a priority for me.”

Not only is this causing challenges for African travelers, but it is also fueling vaccine hesitancy within African nations.

In a recent press briefing, Dr. John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said he did not understand the U.K.'s position, and said that its “a message that creates confusion within our population ... creating more reticence, reluctance for people to receive vaccines."

Zahra Khalid, a finance officer at the Nubian Rights Forum in Nairobi, for example, has not yet been vaccinated because she is skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccines.

“Some of these European countries donate the vaccine to us, yet they don't acknowledge the vaccine. Why would I need to take something that you've given to us and yet you don't acknowledge it?” she said. “Once I heard they're rejecting the shots from Africa, I'm so skeptical about it — very skeptical. It makes up 90% of my skepticism.”

The ever-changing U.K. travel lists include a “red list” of countries and territories, including many African countries. Travelers coming from said list of countries have to be either British or Irish nationals, or U.K. residents.

If they have been in a red-listed country in the past 10 days, they must take a test before arrival, quarantine at a hotel upon arrival, and then take two COVID-19 tests, even if a person is fully vaccinated. Those who are not from countries on the list, yet also not from countries on the approved vaccine program list, such as Kenya, must take a pre-departure test, quarantine at home, and take two tests after arrival.

An announcement on a reduction of the red list from 54 countries to nine could happen this week.