Vaccine process a mountain to climb

If one thing sums up the stoic nature of many South Africans, it is their ability to stand for hours in seemingly endless queues for some or other government service.

Given the chaotic nature of the vaccination queues around the country this week – as health workers rushed at the last minute to get Johnson & Johnson jabs as part of the Sisonke study project – we should all be worried, very worried, that similar scenes don’t play out from Monday next week, when the second phase of the inoculation programme is due to kick off.

In yesterday’s lines, there was little adherence to the rules of social distancing – which is not easy when you’re anxious and have been lined up for five hours or more – so the vaccination process may well have been counterproductive in that it could have been a “superspreader” event.

The reassurances from the department of health that phase two will be orderly are no real assurance at all.

That is because the government’s whole approach to vaccines and vaccinations has been contradictory and
confusing.

We turned away the AstraZeneca doses because we believed they would be ineffective – while many other countries are using them.

Then, we seemingly didn’t get our orders in on time for full stocks of vaccines to be acquired. The bottom line: we are lagging behind most of the rest of the world – and by some estimates, it would take a decade, at the current rate, to vaccinate the 70% of the population which would guarantee community immunity.

There are still 40 million more people who need to get the jab. That looks like a mountain to climb.

The Covid vaccination process must not be allowed to turn into another disaster, along with the rest of the catastrophes visited upon us by our ANC rulers.