DURBAN - The South African Heart Association (SA Heart) has joined the increasing commentary to encourage SA citizens to vaccinate.
The organisation said in a statement that it had noted a recent video and commentary by heart surgeon Dr Susan Vosloo proclaiming her personal anti-vaccination beliefs around Covid-19.
It said that although Vosloo is a well-respected cardiothoracic surgeon, her personal opinion is in direct contradiction to current evidence-based standard of care both locally and internationally.
Dr Blanche Cupido, president of SA Heart Association, said the organisation, which represents the opinion of cardiovascular practitioners, recognised and advocated for the use of vaccines in the prevention of severe Covid-19 infections.
Cupido said there was clear scientific evidence for the use of vaccinations to reduce the risk of both hospitalisation and death in Covid-19 infections, and that the benefit of vaccination far outweighs its risk.
“There are currently two Sars-CoV-2 vaccines being used in the national vaccine programme in South Africa: the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is an mRNA vaccine that is given as two doses separated by 21 days.
“The J&J vaccine is an adenovirus-vectored DNA vaccine given as a single dose. Both were evaluated in randomised controlled trials involving over 40 000 participants to evaluate efficacy and safety before being used in vaccine programmes.
“In these trials, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine resulted in a 95% reduction in Covid-19 infections. A similar reduction in cases of severe Covid-19 was observed. The J&J vaccine resulted in a 66% reduction in cases of moderate to severe-critical Covid-19 and an 85% reduction in severe-critical Covid-19.
“More recent epidemiologic studies have shown that with the spread of the delta variant of the virus the efficacy of vaccines is reduced, but the vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe Covid-19 that results in hospital admission and death,” said Cupido.
The body added that mild side effects were common with all Sars-CoV-2 vaccines and reflected the immune system being stimulated by the vaccine.
It said severe side effects had been reported in a transparent manner during the trials and during programmatic use but were exceptionally rare.
The overwhelming benefits of vaccination in terms of preventing death from Covid-19 far outweighed the risks of these reported rare severe side effects, it said.
“As a body, we therefore recommend the use of vaccination for Covid-19 and would encourage all citizens, especially those with comorbidities like heart disease, to register for vaccination,” said Cupido.
Professor Marc Mendelson, an Infectious diseases expert, has also posted a YouTube video explaining at length the impact of Covid-19 vaccination, and shared the impact of choosing not to vaccinate.
THE MERCURY