Expert: SA vaccine rollout an ‘absolute disaster’ so far

Wits University professor of vaccinology Shabir Madhi has urged government to speed up its rollout of Covid-19 vaccines over the next few months so South Africans can get back to relatively normal life.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Think Big webinar hosted by financial services group PSG, Madhi said vaccines were not a cure-all for the coronavirus but would play a major role in reducing the pressure on the country’s healthcare system and the number of people dying from Covid-19.

“If we can get 15 million people vaccinated in the next four months, South Africa could get back to a relatively normal life despite the ongoing circulation of the virus,” Madhi said.

Last week, government temporarily halted the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine to the country’s healthcare workers under the Sisonke programme following six reports of an extremely rare blood clotting syndrome identified in the US.

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said it would continue to evaluate safety and observe developments around the J&J vaccine.

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Madhi said government’s rollout of Covid-19 vaccines was not just disappointing but “an absolute disaster”.

“I think we have fallen short dramatically when it comes to the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. That has been just an absolute disaster. We are one of a few countries that are yet to start a Covid-19 vaccination programme.

“What is currently happening in healthcare workers is not part of a general Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme. It’s been done as part of an implementation study. So, we are really lagging behind when it comes to that and I think there were a number of mixed calculations right from the outset,” he said.

Madhi said South Africa was still in the top 10 to 15 countries with the most Covid-19 deaths. Vaccines will only be rolled out to adults 60 and above in mid-May.

Government has so far procured 31 million vaccine doses from J&J and 30 million from Pfizer. The Covid-19 Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) for citizens over 60 years of age has been opened to register for vaccines when the second phase of jabs starts from 17 May.

Madhi said the government’s response to the pandemic, in general, had been reasonably good.

“But whether that [infections and deaths] was avoidable in our own context … I don’t think it was avoidable.

“I think it was also naive of us to believe that we were going to contain the spread of the virus given our socioeconomic conditions,” he said.

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