The government’s decision to offload the AstraZeneca vaccine instead of using it to protect high-risk individuals from severe Covid-19 is a mistake, leading vaccinologist Prof Shabir A Madhi says.
In an opinion piece written for Business Day, Madhi says the 1-million doses, which cost SA R75m, are likely to save the lives of those at risk in the next wave of infections.
Experts expect a third wave to hit SA in the winter months.
Madhi, who is the dean of the Wits Medical School, says the decision by the government not to use the vaccine leaves older and vulnerable citizens without any potential protection from Covid-19 as it is not likely that enough other vaccines will have arrived in SA by winter.
The decision not to deploy the vaccine in SA goes against the spirit of what was previously espoused by the department of health: that it would take its lead from World Health Organization recommendations, he says.
His study of the vaccine tested in young people in SA showed it does not prevent mild cases of the B.1.351 variant, which emerged in SA.
The vaccine also will not stop the virus spreading.
Warnings
But Madhi has repeatedly warned that this does not mean the 1-million doses, which will expire at the end of April, should go to waste.
The similarity of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine tested in SA shows there is a "biological plausibility" that it will do just what the J&J vaccine does and stop hospitalisations and death in those most at risk of Covid-19 complications.
SA has instead decided that the vaccine should go to AU countries, where the B.1.351 variant supposedly is not circulating — something Madhi suggests is unlikely. It is more likely not to have been detected in these countries.
Madhi says that like the AstraZeneca vaccine, most first-generation Covid-19 vaccines are unlikely to bring about an interruption in transmission of the virus or lead to herd immunity in places where variants such as B.1.351 are circulating.
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