The Covid-19 mass vaccination roll-out programme is South Africa’s best chance of returning to a “normal life” according to Dr Katlego Mothudi, managing director of the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF).
“We have seen a semblance of normality in countries where enough people have been vaccinated. While there will be people who will test positive for Covid-19, fewer people will become sick enough to warrant hospitalisation or even to succumb to the virus,” he said.
The board is one of the biggest representative bodies for medical schemes throughout the Southern African region, with membership in South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi and Swaziland.
While there is complexity in understanding how the Covid-19 vaccine works, Mothudi says that vaccines have a long and proven track record in containing the spread of diseases, and in some instances have contributed to the total eradication of diseases such as smallpox and polio.
To contain the Covid-19 pandemic and ease the burden on health-care facilities, at least 67% of South Africa’s population will need to be vaccinated.
“If we do not vaccinate enough people at a specific rate, we run the risk of not reaching herd immunity, which means our return to a normal life and economic activity will also be hampered. Without herd immunity, we will forever be required to go into lockdowns and defer living our lives normally,” he said.
South Africa is currently administering more than 240 000 vaccines every week day.
As a result, more than 6.6 million Covid-19 doses have been administered, with over 10% of the country’s population having received a shot.
Mothudi says that consumer education on vaccines through the right channels of communication is important to helping people understand that vaccines can save lives and help us return to normalcy.
“Vaccines contain weakened or inactive parts of a particular organism (antigen) that triggers an immune response within the body to help the body fight viruses. Newer vaccines contain the blueprint for producing antigens rather than the antigen itself. These weakened organisms trigger the body’s response to the real virus by producing antibodies that allow the body to fight the infection,” said Mothudi.