ANTI-VAXXERS ON THE RISE
SA response ‘plagued by corruption and mismanagement’, say researchers
The World Health Organisation has named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 threats to global health — and it’s on the rise.
A new study led by SA researchers has shed light on the growing reluctance in many parts of the world to be vaccinated.
Talita Greyling of the University of Johannesburg and Stephanie Rossouw, formerly of North-West University but now at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, devised an attitude index based on tweets over the course of six months from February last year.
Their research covered SA, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, France and Germany.
“The attitude improved in only two countries, namely Belgium and the Netherlands. For the remaining countries, the trend was negative over time,” the researchers said.
They looked at each country individually and said SA “faced problems such as capacity issues, mistrust in the government, and anti-vaccination campaigns”.
These contributed to growing scepticism about vaccines. “From as early as December 2020, it seemed that the [vaccination] strategy was haphazard,” they say.
On February 1 last year the first delivery of AstraZeneca was made to SA and even by then “it seemed that the government did not have a clear vaccination policy”.
The health ministry “created confusion” when it put the rollout on hold after it came to light that AstraZeneca “did not demonstrate efficacy against mild to moderate Covid”.
The decision raised the ire of local scientists and flew in the face of WHO advice, because the vaccine could still have prevented severe disease and death.
Failure to use the AstraZeneca shots put 17-million high-risk people in a vulnerable position; during the winter months from June to September last year, Covid was blamed for 25,660 deaths in SA.
The researchers say the vaccine mess could have been avoided “if the South African government had not been plagued by corruption and mismanagement during its response to the pandemic”.
By August 2021, vaccine apathy in the country was clear “as the number of people coming forward to be vaccinated dropped below 200,000 a day, falling short of the set target of 300,000”.
In their study, published in peer-reviewed science journal PLOS ONE, the researchers conclude that the general “downward trend in positive attitudes is partly due to a fear of the side effects” but that “many other factors also contribute”.
These include procurement problems, corruption, resistance to mandatory vaccination and Covid passports, and dissatisfaction with the government’s rollout plan.
However, local experts say SA has reached the point where a mandatory policy or passports are the only weapons left in trying to get sufficient numbers of people vaccinated.
Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at Wits University, told the Sunday Times: “Unvaccinated individuals are unlikely to be coming forward in large numbers unless there is some level of compulsion. An example is the requirement for mandatory vaccination in engaging in indoor gatherings.”
Wolfgang Preiser, a professor of virology at Stellenbosch University, said sceptics adopt a narrative about the vaccine and then stick to it regardless of what the science says.
“In many countries, self-confessed hesitants said they were waiting for ‘the traditional vaccine’, which is a scientifically unsound term anyway. Now it is licensed there, and available, but they are still ‘hesitant’.”
Dr Stavros Nicolaou from Aspen Pharmacare said every effort should still be made to get people to vaccination sites.
“Although we are in a lull phase at the moment, we will invariably have other variants we just don’t know the timing and severity but another upsurge in the winter months is very likely. We want to avoid a variant that is destructive to both the economy and public health, and that is why vaccination is still needed.”
He said that if the government was reluctant to impose a policy of mandatory shots for all, “what works effectively is restricted access to venues”.
Foster Mohale, a spokesperson for the department of health, told the Sunday Times this week that the government was continuing “to explore various strategies to increase vaccine uptake”, but gave no details.