This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l.
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US conservatives spreading anti-vax misinformation to unvaccinated Uganda

By:   []

Date: 2022-02 

Just 5% of Uganda’s population is fully vaccinated, with the country on the cusp of reopening after one of the world’s longest and toughest lockdowns. Last week the virus was the number two cause of death in the country.

End Lockdown Now was launched in June by Ugandan lawyer and preacher Simon Ssenyonga, It has platformed arguments for the use of ivermectin, an unproven treatment for the virus, and a recent Facebook post shared by the campaign claims that PCR testing is not a valid way to detect COVID. Ssenyonga insists his organisation is “not a misinformation campaign” and says it does not “propagate” the use of ivermectin.

Brownstone Institute founder Jeffrey Tucker, who made the “natural immunity” claim, also stated falsely at the same event that COVID-19 vaccines were “a technology that’s not been proven as safe and effective”.

End Lockdown Now’s events have been covered widely and uncritically in local media, and shared by social media influencers with tens of thousands of followers. Its hashtag #EndLockdownNow has trended on Ugandan Twitter at least twice – in July and November – and Ssenyonga claims each event is now achieving 15 million impressions on social media. “But when I have a big person like Tucker,” he told the Citizens and openDemocracy, “there’s a cross-sharing of audiences […] so they reach maybe 50 million around the world.”

Ssenyonga has appeared across Ugandan media to promote his campaign, although local channel NTV published a statement last year distancing itself from comments he made “that could be interpreted to challenge the advice given by the Ministry of Health”.

He added that he was “one of the many concerned individuals who were concerned about the clear lockdown injustices and seriously resisted it through the campaign”, but would not give further details on who else was involved.
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