Cape Town - Health experts are rallying behind the call, “vaccination saves lives” as the country prepares for the mammoth task of vaccinating against Covid-19.
The University of Pretoria (UP) held an online discussion on Thursday to dispel common misperceptions on vaccines as well as to provide more information on the virus.
Head of the Covid-19 Response Team at UP and Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Professor Veronica Ueckermann said, “If you look at scientific literature, there is a wealth of evidence that shows that our best defence against infectious diseases, really is prevention through vaccination. You can think of measles, polio, many diseases, where vaccinations saved millions of lives.”
She said there were 11 vaccines that had completed phase 3 trials and been approved in at least one country.
UP’s Professor in the Department of Immunology, Theresa Rossouw, said misinformation on the vaccine had caused unnecessary fear.
“The vaccine is definitely safe. The vaccines went through all the various clinical stages that we always have for development of vaccines and drugs – phase 1, 2, 3 where we look at safety, efficacy and appropriate dose. These phases were just much faster, they were accelerated because of the urgency of the pandemic. But also because of international collaboration that we’ve never seen at this scale, and political will and financing which made it easier to recruit a large number of participants.”
Adverse effects to vaccines occur early on, usually in the first few weeks or months, said Roussouw, but very little is known about the long-term effects of the vaccines.
Meanwhile, Premier Alan Winde says the province stands ready to receive its vaccines and to commence vaccinating, as the first 1 million doses are expected to arrive in the country on Monday.
Winde said the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority would conduct a quality control process once the vaccines arrived. The Biovac Institute will then distribute vaccines to various provinces and the provincial Health Department would be responsible for the distribution through its central medical depot. The vaccines would then be distributed to healthcare facilities, City facilities and the private sector.
Winde remained adamant on the province’s own procurement of vaccines, but said it would not sway away from the national vaccine procurement plan.
“Centralised procurement requires a contingency plan that is complementary to the national strategy. This does not mean that the province does not support or does not want to be part of the national strategy. We will continue to work with the national Department of Health, and we will, of course, co-ordinate our efforts with theirs. But we will at the same time ensure we can mitigate the risk and ensure additional pathways to source vaccines.”
Meanwhile, the IFP has called on the government to prioritise homeless people in the national vaccine roll-out strategy.
“Amid all the planning, and a growing sense of panic, the impact of the spread of Covid-19 among homeless people is not being widely discussed. It is nearly impossible for homeless people to maintain social distance and comply with hygiene requirements.”
Cape Argus