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JOHANNESBURG – Leading vaccinologist Professor Barry Schoub says South Africa could not risk buying a COVID-19 vaccine early last year because it was unclear how effective or safe the vaccines would be.
Currently, it appears that the country will receive the first batch of prophylaxis in April.
READ: Criticism over COVID-19 vaccine delay increases
Schoub said several high-income countries pre-bought risk-based vaccines a few months ago.
Some countries bought five times the amount required for their populations.
He said that “they could afford to waste money that we could not afford to waste.”
READ: Civil society organizations call for a fair distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine
“So we were getting ready, but we didn’t have the financing to buy at risk.”
“Of course we have a small advantage, because now more vaccines are coming online and we can evaluate which vaccines and we can see how the vaccines that have already been approved, how they perform in the field.
“Field behavior does not necessarily fully equate to how vaccines perform in a test situation.”
* See the full interview with Professor Barry Schoub above.
