The publication this week of the previously secret Covid-19 vaccine contracts the health department signed with pharmaceutical manufacturers is a stark reminder of how little negotiating power many governments held as they scrambled to secure doses in a time of global scarcity.
SA was clearly a price-taker, compelled to pay more than far wealthier EU member countries did for the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab and accept the rates set by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. Nor was it in any position to push back on the onerous conditions imposed by pharmaceutical companies, which absolved themselves of any penalties for late deliveries.
Health activists are right to draw attention to this grossly unfair situation. But the far bigger scandal is that having spent an estimated R14bn on Covid-19 jabs, and belatedly filled its warehouses with enough doses to vaccinate the nation, the health department squandered the opportunity. Less than 40% of the population has been immunised, the once-integral private sector has been entirely shut out, and SA’s vaccination programme has virtually ground to a halt.
Not only does this dismal performance leave SA facing the prospect of having to destroy millions of doses of expired vaccines, but it poses the very real risk that next time health officials ask Treasury for money for Covid-19 vaccines they will be shown the door.
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