Faizel Patel – 23/03/2021
The Deputy Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at Professor Francois Venter says South Africa needs to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
During his virtual message on Human Rights Day, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that government will ensure that vaccines are available to everyone in the country, but again did not give an indication of when this will happen.
The Health Department and the Ministerial Advisory Committee has also come under renewed criticism for the lack of communication and transparency on its vaccine rollout programme.
Speaking to Radio Islam, Venter says there concerns about the country’s slow rate of the vaccine rollout.
“What worries me about our government is that it makes choices and we saw this the whole of last year around its COVID policy. It could be justified, but it doesn’t communicate these things very well and that’s what we are seeing with the vaccines again. They are not telling us what’s going on like who they are talking to, when are the vaccines going to arrive. There’re lots of vague promises.”
Venter says with third wave on its way, government needs to take action.
“It takes several weeks for immunity to build up once you’ve been given the vaccine. So we don’t have time to sit here twiddling our thumbs, we need these vaccines in the arms of vulnerable people as urgently as humanly possible.”
He says South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) understands the urgency and are doing a rolling evaluation of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“You often see people holding up one vaccine and comparing to the other and say this one is 96% and this one is 74%. They’re all brilliant, they all stop you dying, they stop you going onto a ventilator, and that’s all we really care about. Whether you get a sore throat or not, it’s about how we stop people being hospitalised and get the worst things that can actually happen to you.”
With reports of a possible hard lockdown during the Easter break, Venter says government needs to work with religious leaders, the transport industry among other to educate and explain the consequences of congregations and super spreader events.
Listen to the interview with Professor Francois Venter
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