Some of South Africa\u2019s most senior medical leaders and academics have called for president Cyril Ramaphosa to fire government officials over delays in procuring Covid-19 vaccines, saying their actions will cause thousands of deaths and untold economic damage.<\/p>\n
The demand was made in an opinion piece run by News24, the country\u2019s biggest Internet news site, and signed by nine people including Glenda Gray, the president of the South African Medical Research Council, and officials from other health organisations, hospitals and universities.<\/p>\n
While at least 29 countries ranging from Mexico to Germany have begun inoculating their populations against the virus, South Africa has yet to conclude any agreements for direct supply with pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n
The country has ordered vaccines from the Covax facility, an initiative designed to ensure equitable access to vaccines, but those will only cover 10% of the population of about 60 million and will arrive in the second quarter of the year.<\/p>\n
Even then a charity put down the deposit after government missed a deadline it announced itself.<\/p>\n
The failure to procure vaccines is an \u201cunforgivable failure, which will be measured in lives lost in their thousands, sickness for tens of thousands, a broken health-care system and profound and ongoing economic damage,\u201d the health leaders and academics said in the opinion piece.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa will need to \u201cwield the axe against the members and officials in his administration who are responsible for this perilous fiasco and immediately set about correcting the course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyrone Seale, Ramaphosa\u2019s acting spokesman, said he may comment after the presidency has examined the article. The health ministry didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
South Africa, with over 1.09 million confirmed Covid-19 infections and 29,175 deaths, is the worst hit country on the African continent. Its economy likely contracted by the most in nine decades last year, according to government estimates.<\/p>\n
The criticism adds to attacks on the vaccine strategy by opposition parties as well as the country\u2019s biggest labor unions, which are allied with the ruling party.<\/p>\n
With the world\u2019s biggest HIV epidemic and hundreds of thousands of tuberculosis sufferers, South Africa has a sophisticated health system with world-leading scientists.<\/p>\n
At least three Covid-19 vaccine trials are underway in the country and Johnson & Johnson has agreed to have 300 million of its Covid-19 vaccines made at an Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd factory in the country when the shot is approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic acknowledgment by officials that they didn\u2019t think it prudent to begin bilateral negotiations with vaccine suppliers because they could not \u2018take the risk\u2019 of ordering vaccines in the event they would not work is shockingly disingenuous,\u201d the health leaders said.<\/p>\n
They also criticized the so-called ministerial advisory committee, a group of scientists appointed by health minister Zweli Mkhize, for echoing the government\u2019s arguments.<\/p>\n
Gray and Francois Venter, an academic who signed the opinion piece, were removed from the committee last year by Mkhize. Both have previously been critical of government\u2019s approach to the virus.<\/p>\n