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The moment when the Minister of Health, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, forgot to turn on his screen at the beginning of a press conference, which was designed to inform the country about the launch of the vaccine, was a harbinger of the disorganized state of the so-called launch of vaccinations . The entire 90 minutes were characterized by generality and few details.
If this statement seems harsh, then it is important to start with the obligations imposed by the Constitution on the government, Section 27 of the Constitution establishes the right of everyone to have access to health care. To implement this right, the State must take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realization of the right. In the case of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which addressed the failure of the government to provide nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the Constitutional Court found that the government’s plan was unreasonable, although not he was obliged to. more than just having a plan that, within your available resources, would progressively secure coverage.
In this context, the content of the press conference can be evaluated. In the best case scenario, we now know that the government will be able to access some vaccine as a result of it being part of the COVAX agreement at some point, be it February or March 2021, thereafter, first-rate healthcare workers. line will receive the vaccine. It is not clear whether the entire cohort of health workers in South Africa will be vaccinated. The implementation thereafter was described only in general terms. This was almost a year after the outbreak of the pandemic and months after it became clear to everyone that effective vaccines would be produced. However, our government still does not have a clear plan that can be implemented tomorrow in the unlikely event that a quantity of vaccine is available.
Ultimately, there is no reasonable plan to progressively vaccinate the population.
Except for the extremely limited supply of COVAX, there is no concrete and visible plan to access or distribute the right supply. We are told that by the end of the year, the objective is to ensure that some 40 million people are vaccinated to ensure herd immunity but, in the absence of a clear line of access to 40 million vaccines (80 million, if two are require doses), this is not a plan but an aspiration.
We were told in the most vague terms that the government is in negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to access the necessary supply. In its attempted op-ed in the Daily Maverick To explain the government’s plan, Professor Barry Schoub, chairman of the vaccine advisory committee, relies on the argument that the country did not have the resources to pre-purchase vaccines.
Leaving aside the debate over whether a country would lose its deposit should the vaccine be unsuccessful after a pre-purchase agreement, it leaves out essential details: when did the government begin its attempt to access 40 million (or 80)? million) doses? Why have countries like Colombia been able to access important vaccines, even from AstraZeneca when it is a middle-income country? How will 40 million doses of vaccines be obtained and this cohort vaccinated before the end of the year?
Mkhize and his team sought to hide behind confidentiality agreements. The public may not be able to know the exact price to pay or even the precise terms of delivery, but at least a reasonable plan would inform the public about the timelines for additional supply and why the end of 2021 is feasible. date.
In addition, the game was given away when Dr. Anban Pillay, Deputy Director General of the Department of Health, informed the country that of the five viable vaccines at this time, Moderna was not interested in supplying the country, while the Pfizer vaccine is. . problematic because its cooling requirements make it less useful for widespread distribution in South Africa. The Chinese vaccine has not provided the results of the phase 3 trial, leaving only two companies with which the country could be seeking widespread supplies: AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. They both conducted trials in South Africa, so the question remains: why are other countries already getting AstraZeneca vaccines, including middle-income countries, and not us? And what happened to the earlier announcement that Johnson & Johnson would manufacture in South Africa?
In short, except for a relatively small amount of COVAX, there is no ready supply going into 2021. The statement at the press conference that all vaccine purchases were to be made by the government is deeply problematic: why in the law health care companies shouldn’t? Will they be able to access the vaccines if they are prepared to ensure that distribution extends beyond their members, or can it be shown that some public-private partnership will access supply more quickly for the entire country?
Also, no mention was made of the use of the private sector, such as Coca Cola, SAB, PnP or supermarket chains to assist in the distribution of a vaccine. After all, if we are to vaccinate 40 million people before the end of the year, the plan should already be in place to ensure that we rise to this unprecedented challenge. Furthermore, an ever-increasing surcharge on the vaccine for those who can afford it is a form of financing far superior to begging the private sector.
And if that weren’t enough to worry you, it was disturbing that, but within hours of Professor Schoub’s article appeared, the narrative had changed. In his article, he stressed the line that the vaccine can be a dangerous threat to the public’s motivation to continue with non-pharmaceutical interventions. Well, that hoax lasted only until the press conference, when, fortunately, the minister made clear how essential the vaccine is in the fight to curb the effect of the pandemic. There is more than enough material to infer that. Sadly, in lieu of constitutional compliance, this is a case of belatedly inventing the plan in the wake of understandable public outrage. DM
