DURBAN - PROFESSOR Salim Abdool Karim today joined hundreds of front-line workers across the country who have been vaccinated against the deadly Covid-19 virus.
Following a briefing earlier in the day, Karim made his way to the Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital where he was vaccinated.
“It was a slight prick, I didn’t even feel it. In fact, I didn’t even know she (the nurse) had already given it to me. I was turning to see when she would give it,“ he said, seconds after receiving the shot.
Speaking following his jab, Karim implored communities to refrain from listening to fake news and get the vaccine.
He added that even those who had already been vaccinated still needed to take the necessary precautions of wearing a mask when out in public, practising social distancing and washing their hands regularly.
Karim said it was remarkable that he had been allocated his vaccine at the same hospital where he researched the virus last year this time.
"I had applied to Albert Luthuli Hospital, but when they closed down the site, I was allocated to St Augustine's, and I thought it was apt that the very place I originally worked at in order to understand how this virus actually spreads, it was right here. I felt it was particularly apt that the system sent me here," he said.
Karim said some people reported a slight itch around the area on their arm where they were vaccinated, but other than that there were no major side effects.
A nurse, who spoke on the basis of anonymity, said she had slight body pains that lasted for around two hours, but she was fine and had suffered no side effects afterwards.
Thousands of front-line workers have been vaccinated against Covid as part of government’s vaccine roll-out.
IOL