South Africa Reacts To Gov't Halting AstraZeneca Vaccine Rollout

South Africa Reacts to Gov't Halting AstraZeneca Vaccine Rollout

As South Africa puts vaccination with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on hold after a study revealed it has a less-than-stellar performance against the country's indigenous strain of the coronavirus, the country's politicians, union officials as well as experts scramble to address the situation at hand

JOHANNESBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2021) As South Africa puts vaccination with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on hold after a study revealed it has a less-than-stellar performance against the country's indigenous strain of the coronavirus, the country's politicians, union officials as well as experts scramble to address the situation at hand.

The country stopped the vaccine's rollout on Monday after a study published by the Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit showed the vaccine offered minimal protection against mild-to-moderate forms of COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus strain known as B.1.351, which was originally identified in South Africa in November. The government is now betting on the vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.

In the wake of the rollout suspension, the government has been slammed by the opposition, with some parties telling Sputnik earlier that the authorities are failing to give a proper account to the nation of what has gone wrong.

EPIDEMIOLOGIST EXPLAINS JOHANNESBURG'S ACTIONS

The South African opposition is not the only side trying to figure out what is the problem and how to proceed. The World Health Organization has been trying to figure out the same thing with the help of epidemiological expert Salim Abdool Karim, a co-chair of South Africa's Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19.

"To date five of the eight vaccines that we have been monitoring have had these laboratory essays. What they show is that vaccine-induced anti-bodies have greater difficulty neutralizing the South African variant than they have against pre-existing variants. We saw a substantial decline in some vaccines and less so in others," Abdool Karim said at a WHO briefing, adding that while some vaccines like the Pfizer and Sinopharm ones have shown a minimal reduction in effectiveness, others had a significant drop in neutralizing activity.

At the same time, the data only show the effectiveness for mild and moderate forms of COVID-19, making it unclear how the vaccine works in severe cases, the expert said.

"Now the proposal to roll it out in the first step includes about a hundred thousand individuals that are vaccinated in which we monitor the hospitalization rates. We also need to explore other options. We do not want an issue where we vaccinate a million people only to find that it does not work, we need to make an assessment and then roll it out on a grander scheme," Abdool Karim continued.

Meanwhile, some experts and scientists say that it is not all doom and gloom, suggesting that the AstraZeneca vaccine will play a role in protection against the initial variant and may well offer South Africans some protection from the new variant lest it is combined with a booster jab. Nevertheless, the WHO leadership remains concerned.

"South Africa has declared that they are suspending the rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine after a study showed that it was minimally effective at preventing mild to moderate infection, this is caused by a variant first identified in South Africa. This is clearly concerning news," Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated.

SOUTH AFRICAN OPPOSITION OUT FOR BLOOD

On Monday South Africa's political opposition blasted Johannesburg for its handling of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, expressing shock and indignation.

"The ACDP [African Christian Democratic Party] is shocked at the shambolic procurement of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which not only has a limited shelf-life, but is also purportedly not effective against the South African variant of the virus. This may result in the estimated R4.6 billion Rand [$311 million] on this vaccine being fruitless, and wasteful expenditure, which the country can ill-afford at this time," ACDP lawmaker Steve Swart told Sputnik.

The spokesman for the African Transformation Movement (ATM), Zama Ntshona, echoed those sentiments.

"We are of the view in the interest of the public safety that the authorities have acted recklessly and irrationally in total disregard of human life in procuring AstraZeneca ... As the ATM we view this mass rollout of the vaccination campaign as a premature undertaking that is sanctioning the exposure of the citizen of this country to a massive scientific experiment without their consent," Ntshona said.

As the vaccine rollout comes down to a halt, the country's unions, including those representing health workers, are struggling to figure out what lies next for their members.

The spokesman for the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa, Kevin Halama told Sputnik that the union is nervous and anxious because out of fear for the safety of its members.

"Members of the public do not know what is happening. This fuels further doubt as less people will be out to get the jab based on this back and forth. It is frustrating because not much information is being rolled out by the State. The State has centralized this whole vaccine issue. Government must release information so that we may assist them," Halama said.

Meanwhile, Mandla Shabangu, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary of the Democratic Nursing Organization of South Africa carries a different view.

"The delays are justifiable. We appreciate that mistakes have been picked up. This is neither a deviation nor attempts to discourage our members and South Africa," Shabangu told Sputnik.

The secretary said as the union appreciates the fact that a new vaccine is on the cards for next week.

"A new vaccine will arrive in the country next week from a different supplier. It is not a mess. All what we want is a new supplier. Johnson and Johnson came on board and our health-care workers will be vaccinated from the 15-16 of February and they have received enough training," Shabangu added.

Whether another vaccine will help South Africa is yet to be seen but what has happened shows that while the vaccines are a welcome remedy against the pandemic, the path to normalcy may prove to be a thorny one, with some countries facing more challenges than others.