HARARE, Zimbabwe \u2014\u00a0Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s administration is increasingly suspicious that the United States and Western countries could use Covid-19 vaccines to influence a regime change in the southern African country.<\/p>\n
The United States, Britain, and European Union have since 2000\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0for political reforms in the nation following a chaotic\u00a0land reform<\/a>\u00a0program\u00a0and\u00a0human rights violations.<\/a><\/p>\n Since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic that has\u00a0killed<\/a>\u00a0more than 3,170 people in the country, the Mnangagwa administration has snubbed western-manufactured vaccines in favor of those \u201cfoul weather friends\u201d\u2014China, Russia, and India.<\/p>\n The British-Swedish Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, along with Pfizer\u2019s, and Moderna\u2019s from the United States \u2014 all from perceived hostile countries with a regime change agendas \u2014 have not been cleared for use in the country.<\/p>\n The government approved vaccines from American manufacturer\u00a0Johnson & Johnson<\/a>\u00a0on July 28 but did not indicate when they will arrive in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cMDC-Alliance is in a bit of a bind which it now seeks to resolve, abortively aided by the undiplomatic US man here,\u201d\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0Charamba on July 19, 2021.<\/p>\n The tweet came from an account called\u00a0@Jamwanda2<\/a>, which according to Zimbabwean journalist\u00a0Hopewell Chin\u2019ono<\/a>\u00a0is Charamba\u2019s account. Chin\u2019ono was a 2010\u00a0Nieman Foundation Fellow<\/a>\u00a0at Harvard University.<\/p>\n He further stated: \u201cThe US Embassy strategy has been to desperately stampede the Ministry of Health to allow the government to accept importation and administration of those unregistered vaccines, using\u00a0Covax facility.<\/a>\u00a0This would then provide cover for this political donation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately for them, Chinese, Russian and Indian vaccines, which are now registered for use in the country, are now registered with the WHO (World Health Organization), making them part of the Covax menu. Zimbabwe insists that any assistance under Covax limits itself to those registered vaccines. The US and their MDC-Alliance lackeys are in a real bind.\u201d<\/p>\n Both the United States embassy in Zimbabwe and the opposition party\u00a0refuted the claims.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI repeat: the MDC Alliance has not received vaccines from any person or organization,\u201d said the Movement for Democratic Change-Alliance spokesperson, Fadzai Mahere, in a\u00a0tweet.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of regret that Charamba continues to act in this disgraceful manner. He is telling lies and playing politics with people\u2019s lives instead of focusing on curbing vaccine hesitancy.\u201d<\/p>\n Health officials in the country steered off the controversy.<\/p>\n