As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across Africa, and corporates fund the government’s COVID-19 response it has become increasing important to ensure that the media, who are reporting on the virus, are aware of the dangers of corporates that compromise public health with their involvement in the response to the pandemic.
At both country level and internationally tobacco companies have offered financial support to the COVID-19 fight. Tobacco giant British American Tobacco, for example, put themselves in the race to develop a vaccine. Every cent counts – and will help the fight. But the reality is that governments need to be cautious when they accept assistance from multinationals. Interactions must be transparent and in the interest of their citizens.
To this end, Uganda’s Ministry of Health and the CTCA joined forces to host a webinar that could expose how the tobacco industry was manipulating public policies and programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The webinar, which spanned one and half hours, took place on October 13. A total of 7 TV Stations, 15 Radio Stations, 5 newspapers and six social media influencers attended the session.
During the webinar, CTCA Centre Manager Dr Jim Arinaitwe as well as Dr. Hafsa Lukwata Sentongo, the TC Focal Person in the Ministry of Health were speakers.
The event was organised by the Uganda Health Communication Alliance and funded by the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa. Uganda is one of the seven countries which the CTCA supports in terms of capacity development for tobacco control.
Dr Arinaitwe said it was important for the media to adopt innovative ways of reporting on tobacco control and COVID-19 to make sure that they have the up to data. He said the media should be the strongest ally in the fight against COVID-19, specifically around tobacco control through sharing messages that help people understand the links between tobacco and COVID-19.
He called upon the media to adopt different innovative approached of TC and #COVID19 reporting so as to keep people updated about their correlation.
He noted that the government had shifted its attention from other none #COVID19 related health concerns including tobacco control thus calling for media to regain the attention on tobacco harm.
Reflecting on tobacco industry interference during the pandemic, he also cautioned the media against the tobacco industry portraying itself s sympathizers in this crisis through voluntary support to govts. He thus denounced their contributions in both research and funding.
Dr. Hafsa Lukwata Sentongo said the media should use the various available tobacco control resources at hand in major language translations of Ugandans to inform the people in different grass-root communities about the dangers of tobacco use.
She said that as different brands and forms or flavours of tobacco were being made, it was important for people to understand that all forms of tobacco use was harmful to people ” It is the same tobacco in different packaging” said Sentongo.