Professor Shabir Madhi has been appointed as an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by King Charles III.
Professor Shabir Madhi has been appointed as an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by King Charles III.
The Wits Professor of Vaccinology led the Oxford University sponsored Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials in South Africa.
Madhi received the Order in recognition of his services to science and public health in a global pandemic.
Despite now owning the prestigious title of CBE, Professor Shabir Madhi admits that the title doesn’t exempt him from his daily household chores.
“I was reminded that whatever the title CBE stood for, I was still expected to take out the trash and do the dishes,” Madhi says as he giggles away.
Nonetheless, his family are incredibly proud of him, after he was recently acknowledged by King Charles III of Britain.
“Deep down, I suspect they are proud, but keep it well hidden. I suspect my late parents, especially my mother, would have been a bit more forthcoming in their complements.
“I suspect that because there are so few South Africans to have received this acknowledgement, it is not really up their as an ‘achievement' in South Africa.“
Being acknowledged by King Charles III of Britain is something that certainly never featured in Madhi’s list of things to accomplish in his stellar career.
So when the renowned Wits professor received a call last week informing him that he would be appointed as an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by King Charles III, he admits he was taken aback.
“It was a huge surprise to be nominated and subsequently to have received the honour, as it was not something which I ever aspired to achieving. Nevertheless, it is warmly welcomed,” says Madhi.
The Wits Professor of Vaccinology, led the Oxford University sponsored Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials in South Africa.
Wits University and the University of Oxford contributed scientifically to informing the public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa and globally.
Madhi received the Order in recognition of his services to science and public health in a global pandemic.
While delighted by the honour, Madhi says the honour is as a result of team work.
“The award is more of a recognition of my team at Wits-VIDA (Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit), in their tremendous effort to contributing to the science around COVID-19 during the period when the conditions were most challenging.
“It is through this team effort that we were able to gain international recognition for our contribution on studies related to the epidemiology of COVD-19, as well as our work on Covid-19 vaccines.
“Although it demonstrates international recognition for my scientific contribution in understanding the epidemiology and clinical development of COVID-19 vaccines, to me it really is more of an acknowledgement of the collective effort of my staff at Wits-VIDA who I had the privilege of leading, as well as the many collaborators and fellow South African scientists who I worked with during the pandemic.”
Nonetheless, Madhi says it is gratifying to receive an acknowledgement for his contribution to science and public health.
“It is rather paradoxical that during the peak of the pandemic, I was engaged more frequently with representatives of other European Countries than the South African government, which likely contributed to me receiving this award.”
Madhi led South Africa and the continent’s first Covid-19 Vaccine Trials in 2020/2021 as founder and Director of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics 9Wits Vida) Research Unit.
An internationally recognised leader in his field, the National Research Foundation A-rated scientist was involved in multiple clinical and serology epidemiology studies on Covid-19, in addition to his research on vaccines against other life-threatening diseases.
“The AZ Covid-19 vaccine trial and subsequent Novavax vaccine trials, which I had the fortune of leading, were the first two Covid-19 vaccine studies done exclusively in Africa,” says Madhi.
“My leading on these studies was a culmination of work on the clinical development of vaccines in general, for which Wits-VIDA is internationally highly regarded and acknowledged for its expertise.
“My work on vaccines since 1997, enabled me to leverage on networks that were established over time, with the collaborators having full confidence in knowing that such studies could be done in South Africa and would yield robust data.
“The conduct of the Covid-19 vaccine studies were, however, totally different in intensity compared with any other vaccine studies which I previously worked on. Even though the Covid-19 vaccine studies only enrolled between 2500-5000 participants in South Africa, as opposed to other studies where we had enrolled close to 40 000 individuals, the Covid-19 studies were done under extremely stressful and challenging conditions.
“The challenges during the studies included having staff members needing to work 12-16 hours shifts in the laboratory, as well as needing to deal with staff members developing Covid-19 during the course of conducting the studies.
“Often, we ended up having only 50% of the staff complement available, due to other staff members either being off sick with Covid-19 or needing to be in quarantine.
“This was compounded by needing to address miss-information and disinformation around Covid-19 vaccines and Covid-19 in general, which often added to the stress of staff and myself.
“The intensity of undertaking the studies, with the need to keep up to date with the explosion of scientific literature on Covid-19, often meant needing to get by on 4-6 hours of sleep and 14-18 hours of work for weeks on end.
“In retrospect, it probably didn’t do much good for my physical and mental well-being, however, the adrenalin rush of knowing that one was somehow contributing to the massive global effort in trying to overcome the consequences of SARS-CV-2, is what kept me going.”
Asked what went through his mind when he first found out about Covid-19, Madhi says: “The first time I really took Covid-19 seriously was in December 2019 whilst touring round in Cape Town and hearing on the news of what was transpiring in China.
“Having been very much involved in research on respiratory viruses since 1997, and having read about the previous influenza pandemics, I mentioned to my wife at the time that the virus in China might well be the start of something serious.
“Nevertheless, it was still a shock when the virus started transmitting outside of China, and overnight there were scenes of rows of ambulances and mobile mortuaries in many European countries.
“I don’t think anyone, could have been mentally equipped to deal with what transpired subsequently, and more so in this age of technology when we believed that we had made huge strides in medicine compared with when the previous major influenza pandemics had occurred.
“Unfortunately, the majority of countries were found to be wanting in their planning and response to a pandemic, despite scientists having been warning about the possibility of a major pandemic for over two decades.
“The 2009 swine flu (H1N1pdm09) pandemic was perhaps a signal of how unprepared the majority of countries, globally, were to deal with a pandemic; but seemingly those warnings were not heeded by the majority of governments.”
While there was nothing that could prepare Madhi for what was to come, he admits that he always had it in the back of his mind that one day he could possibly experience a pandemic.
“It was a distant thought. Generally, major pandemics have occurred every 40-50 years, including the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the subsequent less severe influenza pandemic of 1967.
“So in a sense, the world was due for another pandemic. Nevertheless, I think most people were of the belief that given the advances in technology, and especially in high-income countries, that a pandemic could be better managed in this day and age compared with half a century ago.
“This was partly true, with the rapid development of life-saving vaccines. However, that approximately 20 million deaths occurred due to Covid-19, indicates that we did not do as well as we hoped we could.
“Nevertheless, things could have been much worse had it not been for the global effort in developing vaccines and other treatments to deal with the pandemic.”
Madhi had his work cut out during the pandemic, admitting he barely had a life outside for work for well over a year.
“Unfortunately, there was no life outside of work until at least the third Covid-19 wave had passed in South Africa in mid-2021.
“Essentially, it was 18 months of flat out work, as was the case for many other scientists, including my own unit staff.
“Whilst many others were able to work from home, etc, the nature of the work that we were involved in at Wits-VIDA required people to be on the ground 5-6 days per week.
“The only respite for my team was if they were unfortunate to develop Covid-19 or needed to be in quarantine; and when they took off some time for a break.
“Personally, I probably had two weeks of “vacation” time in the first 18 months of the pandemic, and even then I still needed to deal with my obsession of keeping up with the latest scientific literature on Covid-19 and planning for the next study which we needed to do.
“Many other scientists in South Africa and globally, were likely in the same frame of mind as myself during that time.
“Fortunately, I was able to avoid getting Covid-19, at least until February 2022, by which time I was vaccinated and recovered after two days.
“I have to admit that I didn’t have too much of a balanced life even before the pandemic. I am fortunate, that my family has overtime, come to accept me being a workaholic, and try to accommodate me as best as they can.”
During the pandemic, Madhi admits to facing a number of challenges.
“I was fortunate in so far as I was able to establish the collaborations very speedily, as well as obtain international funding to engage and lead on the type of studies that I was involved in.
“However, what was really challenging was needing to deal with people who were being dismissive of Covid-19, despite the graveyards filling up rapidly, even in South Africa.”
“As was the case for many other scientists, the personal attacks by Covid-19 denialists and anti-vaxxers was a challenge.”
“However, perhaps most frustrating was needing to deal with poor decision making on the part of the South African Government, even more so after a few scientists such as Professor Glenda Gray, Professor Francois Venter and myself were relieved of our roles in the Ministerial Advisory Committee, under the auspices that the country had entered into a new phase of the pandemic after the first wave.”
“I believe that the real reason for our removal, was more to do with whoever was calling the shots in Government feeling uncomfortable with us truly speaking up when Government was embarking on ill-conceived policies and preaching to the public that it was being guided by the “scientists”.”
“Also, it was bamboozling to me, that being the then Chair of the Ministerial appointed National Advisory Group on Immunization in South Africa, coupled with being internationally recognised for my research on respiratory pathogens and vaccines, that I was considered not to be able to contribute to the Country’s Advisory Committee on Covid-19 vaccines.”
Now that things have somewhat subsided, Madhi said his attention has turned to other vaccine research.
He’s also taken up a new position at Wits as the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.
“Since January 2021, I assumed the position of Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits, which comes with its own challenges and satisfaction of being able to do contribute in a different manner to the future of health in South Africa.”
“Although I still continue with my research on vaccines, I’ve been fortunate in that the team at Wits-VIDA has been able to take on much of the responsibilities in the day-to-day running of the research agenda.”
“My research focus has returned to another field where Wits-VIDA is highly regarded and internationally recognised, which is aimed at developing vaccines for pregnant women.”
“The vaccination of pregnant women could assist in protecting the mothers, reducing risk of adverse fetal outcomes, and protecting their babies in the first few months of life.”
Asked if we could possibly experience another pandemic in our lifetime, Madhi says he doesn’t expect another for at least another 30 to 40 years.
“If there is one thing the Covid-19 pandemic should have taught us, is that nature is unpredictable and has an agenda of its own.”
“The Covid-19 pandemic was humbling to scientists, but was also testimony of the prowess of scientists in being able to leverage on the advances of science for the benefit of society.
“Unfortunately, the benefit of science was not equally distributed and many lives were lost in low-middle income countries, because of the selfishness of some Governments in high income countries when it came to prioritising their own, rather than formulating policies and practices which would have benefited the most vulnerable globally.”
The Star
sameer.naik@inl.co.za