SA's vaccine strategy mistakes
- Ina Skosana, Ozayr Patel with Shabir A. Madhi
Pasha 91: Blunders that left South Africa trailing in the vaccine stakes
The South African government has announced plans to vaccinate about two-thirds of its population against COVID-19 by the end of the year. The aim is to do this in three phases, starting with healthcare workers in phase one, the elderly and those with co-morbidities in phase two and the rest of the population in phase three.
But the plan has been vehemently attacked as lacking in any detail. In addition, the government has been lambasted for failing to acquire vaccines.
Professor Shabir Madhi unpacks what’s gone wrong. The first major error was the South African government’s decision to put all its eggs in the COVAX facility basket. This was a bad decision because South Africa is viewed as a middle-income country, which meant that it would pay more for vaccine procurement through COVAX than if it had pursued bilateral agreements with the likes of pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca.
Madhi, who is Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytical Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, explains that this is just one of a litany of mistakes.
Music: “Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on FreeMusicArchive.org licensed under CC0 1.
“Somewhere Nice” by John Bartmann, found on FreeMusicArchive.org licensed under CC0 1.
Ina Skosana, Health + Medicine Editor (Africa edition), The Conversation and Ozayr Patel, Digital Editor, The Conversation
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.