Fact-checking claims about the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in Uganda/ An Explainer

Source: Ugandan journalist Daniel Lutaaya (September 2022)

Verdict: Claim 1: Correct/ Claim 2: Exaggerated

As the world debated the Covid 19 pandemic, after former US President Joe Biden in September 2022 controversially declared that the “pandemic is over”, doubt within the Ugandan scene about the availability and validity of the COVID-19 vaccine that was being manufactured by scientists at the time started to sprout.

Days earlier, World Health Organization (WHO) boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the end of the Covid-19 pandemic was in sight.

There was more debate that life in many parts of the world was returning to pre-pandemic levels. Mask mandates had been lifted in most countries and many people were free to gather in large crowds, while many got the jab.

In Uganda, a social media post about the shot got many talking.

“Uganda has so far spent over 158 Billion Shillings on developing a COVID-19 Vaccine,” prominent journalist Daniel Lutaaya tweeted in September 2022.

Uganda has so far spent over 158 Billion Shillings on developing a COVID 19 Vaccine. President Museveni promised the vaccine would be out by end of 2021, It is 3 months to 2023 now.
Where is the vaccine? pic.twitter.com/nWOukgoAPX

— Daniel Lutaaya (@DanielLutaaya) September 25, 2022

“President Museveni promised the vaccine would be out by the end of 2021, It is 3 months to 2023 now. Where is the vaccine?” Lutaaya asked.

He included a screenshot of a news story reporting on Museveni’s pledge. Well now, it is 2025 and the same questions still linger.

Lutaaya’s tweet attracted hundreds of reactions. But is the figure he gave accurate? And what has been the progress on Uganda’s development of a vaccine for the coronavirus? Better yet, in case of another pandemic of the same, what does our resilience look like? We checked.

Claim 1: “President Yoweri Museveni promised the vaccine would be out by the end of 2021.”

Verdict: Correct

Nearly 70% of the world, or about 5.35 billion people, have received at least a dose of the Covid vaccine. But this masks the fact that only 22% of Africa’s population was fully vaccinated – that is, received either a single-dose vaccine or both doses of a two-dose vaccine.

However, patent rights had made it difficult for countries like Uganda to manufacture existing vaccines, leaving it dependent on international vaccine developers like Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

This disparity and dependence on international vaccine makers led Uganda President Yoweri Museveni to promise the country would make its own vaccine.

“Making a vaccine involves 9 or 8 phases if WHO allows you to skip one phase. Our researchers are now entering stage 5. We hope to get to stage 8 by November 2021,” Museveni said while opening a high-profile regional WHO summit in Uganda in June of that year. (Note: His official speech said ‘stage 4’.)

“I can assure you that by the end of 2021, we shall no longer be waiting for outsiders to rescue us from mass death.”

We therefore rate this claim as correct – the president did promise Uganda would have a vaccine by 2021.

Where is Uganda’s homegrown vaccine?

Nearly four years after the president promised a vaccine, there has been no official announcement of a breakthrough, which is what was seized on by commentators.

In his June 2021 speech, Museveni said “One of our products has been tried among some patients and most of them have fully recovered, while the others are still on treatment. We target to reach 124 patients before we are sure that this medicine treats Covid-19 patients.”

He was referring to a drug code-named UBV-01N, which the presidency described as “a homegrown natural Covid-19 treatment drug product innovated and developed by Ugandan scientists in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Makerere University and Mulago Hospital among other stakeholders”.

The drug was developed under the Presidential Scientific Initiative on Epidemics (PRESIDE), Museveni’s brainchild formed in April 2020. But it wasn’t clear what exactly it was, with PRESIDE officials describing it as a “vaccine/treatment”.

But little has been heard of this drug since apart from reports that it was undergoing clinical trials and results are expected soon.

Five vaccines were approved for use in Uganda – none of them UBV-01N. As of October 2022, more than 16 million doses had been administered in the country, against a total population of 49 million.

So far, Uganda has 3 out of 4 vaccine projects supported by PRESIDE (Presidential Scientific Initiative on Epidemics) that have proceeded to the preclinical trial stage. Media reports say a candidate vaccine by Makerere University is honing in on human trials. Those same reports described UBV-01N as a herbal remedy used in a supportive capacity.

Accusations from other Members of Parliament arose during a plenary sitting in November 2021, about the misuse of public funds that were released to manufacture a local vaccine. Eliod Tumwesigye, former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation alleged scientists had deceived Museveni about the vaccine and urged his colleague Monica Musenero to account for funds given.

When asked what it would take to make a Covid-19 vaccine and within what time frame, Assistant Professor at the University of Queensland, Paul Griffin, explains “There is no predetermined time frame to make a vaccine.”

“Obviously the Covid vaccines used early on were developed in a very quick timeframe (without skipping any of the essential steps in the testing of safety and efficacy) but this was due to many factors.” He says.

“The platform technology had been under development for a long time, in most cases around 10 years so a lot was known about the vaccine technology even before covid existed. Vaccines for the very similar viruses that caused the first SARS and MERS (other coronaviruses) had been developed but never rolled out given SARS was eradicated with infection control practices and MERS has caused so few cases.

He further explains that the technology was in many ways a “plug and play” type technology in that it could easily be adapted to a new virus just by knowing the genetic code of the virus, which was available shortly after the discovery of the disease. Resources available in the form of funding were ample and meant large clinical trials could be planned rapidly and given the very high prevalence it was easy to meet the endpoints in later phase trials relatively quickly. There was also unprecedented amounts of cooperation and collaboration between groups that we don’t normally see outside of the emergency situation we found ourselves in.

Claim 2: Uganda has so far spent over 158 billion UGx on developing a Covid-19 vaccine

Verdict: Exaggerated/Incorrect

Contacted for the source of his claim, Lutaaya said the 158 billion figure was a “personal calculation” based on information in a May 2022 article by Health Journalism Network Uganda, an independent, non-profit organization that focuses on helping the Ugandan public understand healthcare issues

This article details money allocated to PRESIDE (Presidential Scientific Initiative on Epidemics)since its establishment in May 2020.

Several other news reports and articles have tried to pin down the amount spent on the development of a vaccine in Uganda. Most of the articles sight funds that were allocated but not accounted for, but not the total sum of funds towards the vaccine.

PRESIDE was tasked with spearheading COVID-19 research in Uganda, including the development of a vaccine. Funds had been directed to PRESIDE and MoSTI since 2019/20 to fulfil this mandate.

Debunk Media Initiative contacted PRESIDE chairperson Dr Monica Musenero to find out how much had been allocated towards the development of a COVID-19 vaccine in particular but has yet to receive a response. (Note: we will update this report should we hear back).

In a press brief in February 2022, Monica remarked that only 7 billion had been spent on the vaccine.

Following accusations of misuse of funds levelled against PRESIDE in (November 2021), an investigating committee of 5 was established. Reporting to parliament in May 2022, the committee concluded that there were several irregularities in the administration of PRESIDE.

A report released by the committee, also in May 2022, contains details on the amounts allocated to PRESIDE between Financial Years 2019/20, 2020//21, and 2021/22.

According to the report 142.2 billion UGx was allocated to PRESIDE for Covid-19 related research during this time. Of that, only 67.4 billion had been released for use.

Submission-of-Response-to-the-Report-by-the-Select-Committee-on-Science-Technology-and-Innovation

This refers to money budgeted and released for all COVID-19-related research, including the development of a vaccine but also diagnostics and treatment for COVID-19.

Table Showing Released Funds from Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (This amount is exclusive of approved funds that had not been released at the time of compiling this fact check)
Item	Amount In Billion UGX	Amount In USD	Year(s)
Procurement of Specialized Equipment	5.30 15.79	1.3 million 4.1 million	2019/2020 2020/2021
PRESIDE Secretariate	3.35	915,650	2020/2021
Operational Costs	15.25 25.00	3.9 million 6.5 million	2020/2021 2021/2022
National Research Innovation Programme under MoSTI	2.74	716,823	2020/2021
TOTAL	67.43	17.6 million	2019-2022

From the breakdown in the report, it is unclear how much of the amount budgeted and released was allocated specifically towards the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, it could not have been more than 67.4 billion UGx, which is the total amount spent on all Covid-19-related research so far.

NRIP projects like Covidex were not funded under PRESIDE, but were catered for under the National Research Innovation Programme; a funding entity under MoSTI, therefore their expenditure can not be calculated within the above.

Paul Griffin also mentions that “It is difficult to calculate the total amount required to make a vaccine. There are many quite expensive steps along the way from initial research and development, pre-clinical testing, all of the phases of clinical trials, scaling up of manufacturing etc and all of these whilst expensive are quite variable in just how much they cost.