Johannesburg - March 26, will mark two years since the lives of South Africans changed forever but experts still worry about the high rate of vaccine hesitancy in the country.
According to StatsSA, the Seychelles is the African country with the highest coronavirus vaccination rate, with around 200 doses administered per 100 individuals. Morocco has a vaccination rate of approximately 144 doses per 100 people, registering the second-highest number of inoculations after Egypt.
In South Africa, the most affected country on the continent, the vaccination rate reached around 54 per 100 (43%) population. Recently, health authorities confirmed that more than 100 000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines are at risk of being destroyed by the end of March due to the slow uptake by citizens.
While local statistics indicate that infection rates are slowly increasing, vaccination rates are still relatively low - based on the government's initial goal to vaccinate 40 million (70%) citizens by the end of December 2021. At the beginning of the pandemic, South Africans were concerned that developing countries were not being prioritised or receiving "left overs". Now the question is, what is the reason for this oversupply or lack of demand?
Head of The South African Vaccination and Immunisation Centre at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, professor Hannelie Meyer said if the slow vaccination rate continues, millions of vaccines will have to be destroyed over the next five months if vaccination figures do not pick up. The alternative is that these vaccines may be redistributed to countries who need them and the favour would be returned should SA need them again at a later stage.
“The J&J vaccines will only expire in 2023 but the Pfizer vaccine has a shorter shelf life due to the vaccine formulation process. The Pfizer vaccines at this stage have a shelf life of seven months from the time they arrive in the country and need to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius for maximum shelf life,” she said.
On the issue of vaccine hesitancy, Meyer said every South African has a duty to promote vaccination.
“People are influenced by those whom they trust most. We actually do not have that many anti-vaxxers, globally and in South Africa. They are just very vocal. Most people who do not vaccinate, are vaccine hesitant. In the vast majority of cases, the vaccines have minor side effects, which are mild. The data shows that more than one in 10 people experience very common side effects, such as headache and pain at the injection site. Common side effects such as injection site redness and fever are experienced by 1-10 in 100 people, depending on the vaccine received. We urge you to share your positive experience with vaccination, but don’t judge those who are vaccine hesitant,” she said. “Listen to their concerns, give them time to explain.” Meyer also urged South Africans to be wary of people who promote alternative products as protection against COVID-19 saying these people usually do it for their own financial gain and not for the health and well-being of citizens. Currently, SA administers on average less than 100 000 vaccines per day, but Meyer believes that figure should be much higher. Meyer said with the uncertainty of a possible fifth wave looming and any future variants, everyone should be concerned and get vaccinated.
“The Omicron variant has surpassed the Delta variant. A sub-variant of Omicron, named a ‘stealth variant’ has now been detected in various countries including the US, Germany, the UK, Denmark and South Africa. It’s showing to be more transmissible and also more difficult to detect. While we don’t know enough yet, it does not appear to cause more severe disease than the original Omicron strain,” she added.
Meyer said that mask-wearing is not going to be sustainable and vaccination remains the best way of protecting against COVID-19. While she’s not in favour of mandatory vaccination, there might be some requirements for vaccination in future to access certain facilities and activities.
“All choices have consequences. The advantages of vaccination still outweigh the small risk of a rare adverse reaction. The decision not to vaccinate could lead to disease, hospitalisation and even death,” she concluded.
National Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale said it’s illegal and unethical to administer or prescribe expired medication.
“We need to join hands with the government to encourage people to vaccinate. Show them the benefits of the vaccine to save lives. Covid-19 is still with us, we better protect ourselves now than waiting for future waves,” he said.
Mohale said very little is known about the new variants and nobody knows when the fifth wave will hit SA and how.
“We should learn lessons from the previous variants like Beta and Delta which claimed many lives because we had no vaccine then, now a vaccine is the only effective weapon we can protect ourselves against the pandemic. If vaccines were not safe, we would have lost many people including the president and ministers. We have achieved much over the past two years, of which we only administered vaccines for just a year. Restrictions like lockdowns helped to reduce the speed of transmission or infections, though we have a long way to go,” he said.
Mohale concluded that SA will never be 100% ready for deadly diseases like Covid-19 but if more people can vaccinate, we can prevent avoidable deaths.
“We can relieve pressure from our hard working healthcare workers who sacrificed their lives to protect patients in hospitals,” he said.