Cape Town - The government set a target of getting 70% of the population vaccinated by the end of December this year.
Millions of rands were spent on campaigns and other educational programmes to try and convince citizens to get vaccinated against the Covid-19.
Yet, so far only 26.1% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated, and with the current pace at which people are receiving jabs, the target may not be met even next year.
The government’s biggest challenge is vaccine hesitancy among citizens.
The country is currently facing a fourth wave with a new variant of Omicron driving up these infections.
Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest private health insurance administrator released its analysis of the Omicron outbreak based on 211 000 Covid-19 tests results.
It found that the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination provides 70% protection against severe complications of Covid-19 requiring hospitalisation, and 33% protection against Covid-19 infection, during the current Omicron wave.
President of the SA Medical Research Council, Professor Glenda Gray, said: “We are extremely encouraged by the results of Discovery Health’s analysis.
“It is extremely important to be able to demonstrate to the public that in a real-world setting in the presence of a highly transmissible new Covid-19 variant, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides good protection against severe disease and hospitalisation.”
Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller from the Human Sciences Research Council said despite the information available to the public that proves that vaccines do work, the majority of South Africans will not get vaccinated.
“Unfortunately, progress in this regard is very slow. Most research done in South Africa, including our own, puts vaccine acceptance of adults at about 70% but we are only halfway there.”
She said education and awareness campaigns must continue, not only by the government but by NGOs and the private sector.
“But one does wonder what it would take to convince the vocal minority of ’anti-vaxxers’ to listen to reason and science.
“They seem to be doing a lot of damage on social media.”
It has been said that it would take 400 days to reach the ideal of 70% if the rate of vaccination continues at this pace.
Bohler-Muller said they have found through their research that hesitancy is not the biggest problem.
“Three factors stand out: access, doubts about the effectiveness of the vaccine and fear of side-effects.
“With regards to access, attention should be paid to the location of vaccine sites and efforts to take vaccines to the people.
“For the poor, getting vaccinated carries many costs, including taking a day off work and paying for transport to get to the site.
“However, the issue of effectiveness has become very complicated now that Omicron is on the scene.
“It does appear that J&J and Pfizer offer less protection against this variant and that people who have been vaccinated can become infected again.”
She said what needs to be emphasised is that being vaccinated does still protect against severe infections, hospitalisation and death.
“Data shows that the majority of hospitalisations and deaths are among the unvaccinated.”
A number of companies have begun to introduce vaccine mandates to protect employees and a number of trade unions support this position as it is about protecting others.
However, the concept of a vaccine mandate is being challenged as unconstitutional as it infringes the individual rights to freedom of choice and bodily integrity amongst others.
“However, rights should be balanced against one another and can be limited if considered to be reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society,” Bohler-Muller said.
Weekend Argus