SAMA condemns healthcare workers discouraging patients from getting vaccinated

THE South African Medical Association (SAMA) has expressed its dismay at reports that some healthcare workers, including doctors, have discouraged patients from getting Covid-19 vaccinations, based on doubts about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.

SAMA chairperson, Doctor Angelique Coetzee, said the organisation wholly rejects any doubts about the Covid-19 vaccine.

“There is high confidence among the scientific and medical community about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines being rolled-out in South Africa, and they have also undergone safety and efficacy tests by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority. These are overwhelming endorsements of the vaccines, and there should be no doubt that every citizen must get them,” Dr Coetzee said.

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Dr Coetzee said the medical fraternity must be united in its commitment to ensure wider access to the vaccines.

This, she said, must be based on spreading accurate, evidence-based information, dispelling any misinformation and overcoming vaccine hesitancy, which threatens the goal of achieving optimal vaccine coverage.

Dr Coetzee said the vaccine hesitancy arises from a combination of ignorance, misinformation, conspiracy theories, doubt of scientific evidence, concerns relating to medical histories, and cultural, religious and philosophical beliefs.

“Vaccine hesitancy, however, should be condemned, and so should those who fuel it, particularly doctors who should know better. We share concerns with global and local scientists – and I use that term purposefully – that unfounded objections to Covid-19 vaccines deepen the public health crisis caused by the pandemic.”