Authored by Bada Pharasi, IPASA CEO.
From myths related to the speed at which Covid-19 vaccines were developed, to their efficacy and safety, one thing remains certain - scientists did everything in their power to utilise the technologies at hand to ensure they had a viable solution to deal with one of modern history’s greatest threats.
The vaccination debate has long been a part of modern society, however, with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, whether to vaccinate or not to vaccinate has become a hotly debated topic.
Vaccine hesitancy is described by the World Health Organisation as a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite their availability based on influencing factors such as complacency, convenience and confidence.
Confidence is the most common reason, with widespread distrust and misinformation regarding the vaccines fuelling questions related to the speed at which the various vaccines were developed and whether their safety was compromised, amongst others. Transparency in the development of vaccines, I believe, is key to debunking misinformation and building public trust in vaccine development and efficacy.
In South Africa, vaccine hesitancy is decreasing, with South African Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, recently announcing that 41,61% of the adult population in the country had been fully vaccinated to date, with as many as 1,2 million children aged 12 years and older also receiving the jab.
In addition, studies by the University of Johannesburg (UJ), in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), have found that vaccine hesitancy in the country is slowly on the decline, with figures indicating a decrease from 28% to 25% when compared with last winter.
While hesitancy figures at home may be decreasing, most of the South African population remain unvaccinated, and with only around 54% of the global population fully vaccinated, the problem remains prevalent worldwide. So much so that the World Health Organisation deemed vaccine hesitancy to be one of the ten global health threats in 2019 - and that was before the emergence of Covid-19.
It is important to note that while the rapid development of vaccines seemed too fast, researchers did not start from scratch when SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, was discovered.
SARS-CoV-2 is one of the hundreds of coronaviruses, including four that cause the common cold, as well as the virus that was responsible for the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012. Scientists have been studying coronaviruses for the better part of 50 years, meaning that a significant body of data related to the structure, genome and life cycle of the virus already existed.
This made it easier for researchers to address the emergency of Covid-19 with speed. Pharmaceutical companies had already dedicated considerable investments in various platforms to develop vaccines, and this meant that they were not attempting to test new platforms from scratch, but instead, had solutions that were tried and tested, and proved safe and efficient in real-world scenarios.
Furthermore, the urgency of Covid-19 accelerated research and development activities and saw increased levels of collaboration between regulators and pharmaceutical vaccine developers worldwide.
Traditionally, where phased clinical trials would see a vaccine needing to pass all clinical trial phases before the data was submitted to regulators to review, in the case of Covid-19 vaccines, rolling reviews were performed, where data was shared with regulators concurrently as trials were in progress. This allowed regulators to understand the efficacy of the various vaccines and their safety profiles whilst still in the developmental phase, and greatly reduced the time frame in getting a viable solution to the pandemic out to the public.
To this end, South African scientists have proven instrumental in the fight against the pandemic and have cemented their place amongst the best in the world, particularly in the area of clinical trials and the submitting of crucial data on the safety and efficacy of the various vaccines.
Another popular misconception that contributes to vaccine hesitancy relates to distrust in government-affiliated entities, and in particular, the role of affiliated regulators in approving vaccines and other pharmaceutical medications.
Pharmaceutical medication regulation in South Africa is overseen by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), an entity of the National Department of Health, which was created by the Government to ensure the health and wellbeing of humans and animals. It is important to note that the organisation is completely independent in its actions and does not take decisions based on political influence. It is committed to ensuring that medications distributed to South Africans meet its stringent standards, including safety, efficacy and quality.
SAHPRA’s board comprises independent experts and academics who are not necessarily employees of the Government. Its decisions are not always aligned with the Government’s point-of-view or that of international regulators such as the FDA. The organisation has a firm belief in the importance of reviewing data and makes informed and independent decisions based on its findings in the country.
Even when medications have been approved for use, SAHPRA ensures that pharmaceutical companies report any adverse effects that may come about from their use, and will then conduct its own independent investigation into the cause of the side effects.
Should the investigation prove that the medication contributed to a serious adverse effect, measures will be taken to attend to this, and in serious cases, SAHPRA will revoke the pharmaceutical company’s licence to distribute the medication, with other consequences following, such as the discontinuation of the medication amongst others.
This is particularly important, given numerous comments on social media that vaccines contributed to mortality. However, upon investigating these allegations, SAHPRA found no correlation between the Covid-19 vaccine and the individuals’ deaths.
There is no doubt that vaccines save lives, and eventually, just as with previously devastating diseases, such as polio and pertussis (whooping cough), Covid-19 could be eradicated.