The Dialogue on the Consent to the COVID-19 Vaccination in Tanzania: Legal Perspective

Abstract

It has been over a year and half now ever since the world was struck by the deadly virus, coined as COVID-19. It’s of no dispute the virus took a lot from us worse of all death of our loved ones and brought us a new and ‘unprecedented’ lifestyle. But even after such a disastrous pandemic, the world scientific society did not back down, most states tireless employed their experts to work tirelessly on finding if not a cure then a vaccine that would help reduce or control the rate of deaths that kept on occurring. Fortunately, as of 30th August 2021, the world through World Health Organization approved a total of 7 vaccines to include Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Moderna mRNA-1273, Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, CoronaVac, BBIBP-CorV (Vero Cells).

Tanzania did not fall short on welcoming the use of vaccine. On July 24th 2021, Tanzania's Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima received the first consignment of doses donated from the United States3. Led by the President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the state with a population of 62 million has only received 1,058,450 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The policy however is as such that the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines will target frontline health care workers given their high exposure to COVID-19, the second being elderly and people with co-morbid conditions who are at high risk of developing severe illness if exposed to the COVID-19 virus.4Even after such a relief, the government insisted that the vaccine is to be taken out of free will and coerced though this has raised eyebrows on the safety of the vaccines administered.

That not being enough, the government through the Ministry of Health accompanied with instruction on the preliminaries of the shot, issued an exemption clause, or one would say a warning statement or disclaimer before one opts to administer the vaccine. Though the objectives might be good, questions on the credibility of the vaccines have originated from the ‘escape from liability’ clause to be signed before administering the vaccine. This paper examines the nature of exemption clauses and it legality in relation to the ongoing debate of the statement.

Keywords: COVID-19, Exemption Clause, Liability Clause, Disclaimer