While local experts generally welcome the order in which vaccines will be provided to different categories of people in South Africa, they are concerned that some practical nuances are unclear. Elna Schütz reports.
Local researchers have welcomed impressive phase III findings for the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine published this week in the Lancet medical journal. It is the sixth COVID-19 vaccine found to be effective in preliminary data from a phase III randomised controlled trial and the fourth to have phase III findings published in a leading medical journal.
South Africa has struggled to secure adequate stock of urgently needed COVID-19 vaccines. This has raised questions about the state of the country’s local vaccine manufacturing capacity and why, after almost two decades of government support, South Africa’s partially state-owned vaccine manufacturer Biovac is not better positioned to respond to the pandemic. Catherine Tomlinson investigates.
The delivery of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available in South Africa will be a complex and costly logistical exercise. Acquiring enough injection devices is part of crucial logistical planning to ensure rapid, equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. Adele Baleta reports.
South Africa’s childhood immunisation rates declined in 2020 compared to previous years, largely due to COVID-19 and the related lockdown. Elri Voigt asked government about the country’s catch-up plans.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has approved its first COVID-19 antibody test amid criticism that it is too slow and too cautious in approving applications for the registration of such tests.
National immunisation rates for children under five years have dropped dramatically over the period of South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown, sparking fears of an outbreak of deadly childhood infectious diseases including measles. Adele Baleta reports.
Scientific research on COVID-19 has been published at an unprecedented scale and speed, but some fear that this is at the cost of scientific rigour. Adele Baleta explores the pros and cons of high-speed science.
Tendai Mafuma describes what happened when SECTION27 tried to use new regulations to bring an end to the promotion of an unproven treatment for COVID-19 in South Africa and compares the current situation with the TAC’s successful court battle against Matthias Rath’s promotion of unproven AIDS treatments.
