DURBAN - Netcare’s Hospital Division expressed profound disappointment and disbelief after learning about the publication of a BitChute video in which Dr Susan Vosloo expressed her personal anti-vaccination views regarding Covid-19 last week.
The video airing Vosloo’s views was released on August 10.
On Friday, Netcare, issued a statement distancing itself from the heart surgeon for expressing what it said were her personal anti-vaccination views regarding Covid-19.
Dr Louis van der Hoven, the general manager of Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, confirmed that Vosloo practises at Christiaan Barnard Memorial.
“Dr Vosloo is registered with the Health Professions Council Of South Africa (HPCSA) as an independent healthcare provider. The HPCSA is responsible for ensuring that practitioners uphold and maintain professional and ethical standards within the health profession.
“They ensure the investigation of complaints concerning practitioners and that disciplinary action is taken against persons who fail to act accordingly. Netcare will take advice and guidance from them as a governing body.
“Our 76 colleagues have lost their lives in the past 18 months, mostly, before the vaccine became available,” said Van der Hoven.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, chairperson of South African Medical Association (SAMA), in a statement said, the organisation was dismayed at reports that some healthcare workers – including doctors – have discouraged patients from getting Covid-19 vaccinations based on doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness.
“We wholly reject any doubts about the Covid-19 vaccines. There is high confidence among the scientific and medical community about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines being rolled out in South Africa, and they have also undergone safety and efficacy tests by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority. These are overwhelming endorsements of the vaccines, and there should be no doubt that every citizen must get them,” said Coetzee.
She added that the medical fraternity must be united in its commitment to ensure wider access to the vaccines.
This should be based on spreading accurate, evidence-based information, dispelling any misinformation and overcoming vaccine hesitancy which threatened the goal of achieving optimal vaccine coverage, she said.
She said vaccine hesitancy arose from a combination of ignorance, misinformation, conspiracy theories, doubt of scientific evidence, concerns relating to medical histories, and cultural, religious, and philosophical beliefs.
“Vaccine hesitancy, however, should be condemned, and so should those who fuel it, particularly doctors who should know better. We share concerns with global and local scientists – and I use that term purposefully – that unfounded objections to Covid-19 vaccines deepen the public health crisis caused by the pandemic,” said Coetzee.
THE MERCURY