Flash Briefing: Medical fraternity calls for heads to roll as SA govt. defends Covid-19 vaccine procurement processes

By Melani Nathan 

• Leaders in South Africa’s medical fraternity have called for the axing of government officials responsible for the delay in procuring Covid-19 vaccines for the country. The experts say that the delay is “[an] unforgivable failure, which will be measured in lives lost in their thousands, sickness for tens of thousands, a broken health-care system and profound and ongoing economic damage.” Glenda Gray, the president of the South African Medical Research Council and eight others signed an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling for action against officials.
• Meanwhile members of government committees on Covid-19 and the Department of Health have defended government’s processes and attempted to explain the delays in vaccine procurement. They say while securing a Covid-19 vaccine is top of the country’s agenda, it is not a magic bullet that will end the pandemic. “There is a general misunderstanding and we need to clarify that once the vaccines arrive on our doorstep, that is not the end of the epidemic. ” said Professor Barry Schoub, who is the Ministerial Advisory Committee chairperson on vaccine development. South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) extramural unit researcher, Safura Abdool Karim explained the historic inequity within the procurement of medicine. “The one thing I would want to dispute is the idea that our situation is as a result of poor planning. The reason South Africa is not able to access the vaccine in the way the US and UK have, is that we are not a wealthy country and that is a historic inequity. Poorer countries are always left behind when it comes to health interventions and that is not a result of our government not wanting a vaccine. That is a result of a system that prioritises profits over people’s lives,” said Karim.

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