SA ‘not ready for immunisations’
ROLL-OUT: STATE ‘STILL OVERSEEING TRIAL PHASE’
Delays affected by mutation of virus signal a lack of plan, says expert.
South Africa’s readiness to roll-out vaccines to the general public has been called into question as it appears even though it was currently in its first phase earmarked for healthcare, the government was essentially still overseeing trial-phase rollouts of the AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson (J&J ) vaccine.
To Wits University’s Prof Alex van den Heever, these were some of the many signals that South Africa was nowhere near having a concrete roll-out plan for the general public.
Delays caused by supposed uncertainty on how the South African mutation of Covid-19 may be affected by different have only served as veil for the government’s lack of preparedness.
Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa and his deputy David Mabuza publicly received doses of the J&J vaccine despite the fact that the vaccines were only approved for trial purposes and earmarked for healthcare workers only.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahprah) later clarified this, saying it had approved the protocol amendment of the J&J implementation study targeted at healthcare workers to include the two statesmen.
While they are not classified as healthcare workers, Sahprah chief executive Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela said this initiative would assist in encouraging vaccine uptake.
The roll-out of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine was temporarily paused and downgraded to a tightly controlled trial roll-out after it turned out the vaccine was notably less effective in preventing severe Covid-19 disease among those infected with the 501.YV2 virus strain.
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said: “The long delay and the bungles so far, especially as far as the AstraZeneca vaccine from India is concerned, is indicative of the extent to which oversight is necessary to hold this government accountable.”
Tomorrow the National Assembly is expected to debate a Covid-19 vaccination plan for SA.
That the roll-out of the J&J vaccine began within 24 hours of its arrival also brought into question why the AstraZeneca vaccine was supposedly going to take two weeks before reaching its intended recipients.
“Note the time difference between when the plane arrived with the J&J vaccines and the first dose being administered. It was within 24 hours. Yet when the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived they said they were taking it to Bloemfontein for 14 days to do quality checks. That was because they had no roll-out plan. It was a delaying tactic,” said Van den Heever.