Africa-Press – Namibia. PEOPLE who are opposing the Covid-19 vaccines today are as wrong as those who in the early 1970s opposed the vaccination of livestock.
This was said by Lieutenant-General (retired) Martin Shalli in a recent interview with Informanté.
General Shalli, who served as chief of the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) between 2006 and 2011, has come out in support of the mandatory vaccination order issued recently by Air Marshall Martin Pinehas, the current NDF chief.
Shalli said mandating Covid-19 vaccination for soldiers makes perfect sense taking into account that they live in barracks and work in groups.
Shalli noted that he belonged to the general public that in the early 1970s destroyed cattle pens in the North and held demonstrations against the vaccination of livestock in what they wrongfully considered as an attempt by white people to wipe out the indigenous people’s livestock.
“We know now that we were wrong just like those who today oppose the Covid-19 vaccines are wrong,” he said, before pointing out the irony that “today people line up to buy the same medicine they rejected 50 years ago. Some are even attempting to use animal medicine to cure Covid-19 while at the same time rejecting the medicine that is meant for humans.”
Shalli said that he did not want to get involved in vaccine politics, but stated that the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines is scientifically proven.
Speaking days after a small group of citizens staged a peaceful demonstration in Windhoek denouncing the mandatory vaccination in general and the vaccination order issued to soldiers in particular, Shalli said the demonstrators have the right to express their views, but such views have no bearing on what the NDF is doing.
Soldiers have taken an oath and made a promise to strictly obey legitimate orders, he said.
“There are some rights one enjoys only before joining, and after leaving the NDF, such as the right to demonstrate and to display and wear political party colours,” said Shalli.
He said that those attempting to incite soldiers to disobey orders are doing something foreign to the Namibian culture.
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