Government’s tardiness is ‘jeopardising SA’s access to COVID-19 vaccine’, says DA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Friday, 18 December called on the government to release its COVID-19 vaccine plans publicly, and highlighted that “countless of countries are scrambling to acquire the vaccine, except one – South Africa”.

“Securing the vaccine for South Africa as soon as possible should be the government’s number one priority right now. However, South Africa has missed the deadline for a deposit on the CoVax Vaccine Facility, not once, but twice”.

Siviwe Gwarube MP, DA Shadow Minister of Health

South Africa’s access to COVID-19 vaccine

Tardiness on government’s part

DA Shadow Minister of Health Siviwe Gwarube went on to say that government’s tardiness is “unacceptable”, and is jeopardising [South Africa’s] access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The party initially called on the government to pay the COVAX fee, members were informed that the deadline had not been missed and that South Africa has until 15 December to transfer the funds.

Then, in President Cyril Ramaphosa address earlier this week, he said South Africa will receive initial COVID-19 vaccines to cover approximately 10% of the population “in the early part of next year”.

The president also assured citizens that all the necessary processes have been concluded “to ensure its participation in the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 Global Vaccine Access Facility”.

Second COVID-19 vaccine payment deadline missed

However, Gwarube points out that both payment deadlines for the COVID-19 vaccine’s deposit “have now been missed would throw cold water onto claims that South Africa is anywhere near acquiring this vaccine”.

Therefore, DA leader John Steenhuisen will be requesting that Parliament’s Ethics Committee investigate the apparent mistruths put forth by President Ramaphosa and minister Tito Mboweni.

According to Gwarube, the acts have life-threatening effects South Africa’s citizens. He added that it’s “unconscionable that government can botch up the acquisition of a life-saving vaccine, that is safe and readily available when thousands are at risk of dying from this pandemic”.

COVID-19 vaccine plans transparency

The DA now demands that the government reveals its COVID-19 plans publicly. Some of the questions to address are as follows:

• When specifically will the R327 million Covax deposit payment be made?
• When will government issue the guarantees for the remainder of the amount owing – R1.8 billion?
• Why has the government not committed the full R9.5 billion required to vaccinate 50% of the population? (60 million doses at $10.55 per dose)
• Has South Africa signed a) a Committed Purchase Arrangement or b) an Optional Purchase Arrangement, and whichever agreement it has signed should be publicly released?

“Very little detail has been shared on the timeline of the payment and actual procurement of the vaccine. Experts have warned that the transportation, storage and allocation of the COVID-19 vaccine is a complex process that should be developed and shared with the nation”

Is there any reason to be sceptical of vaccine trials?

Back in July, most of the country was in an uproar when a scientist said vaccines should be tested in Africa. While the outrage was justified, should we have reason to be sceptical of all vaccine trials?

According to Shabir A. Madhi, Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytical Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, the “short answer is no”.

Madhi explains that the narratives that Africans are being used as guinea pigs is fundamentally incorrect.

“Rather a case of us wanting to generate robust scientific data to be able to make informed decisions about whether those vaccines actually do protect South Africans – and possibly Africans more generally – against developing COVID-19”.

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