EDITORIAL: State right to be wary about AstraZeneca vaccine
Waiting for an obviously effective vaccine will go some way to offset vaccine hesitancy in SA
For the past few months, the nation has watched in dismay as one country after another began administering Covid-19 shots, while local infections and deaths surged with no apparent end in sight. But, ironically, the government’s foot-dragging may turn out to have saved it from a costly mistake.
On Sunday, news broke that the 1-million Oxford-AstraZeneca shots that had landed in SA less than a week earlier and were set to be rolled out to health workers within a matter of days may not be up to the task. Preliminary clinical data from a small SA trial showed AstraZeneca’s vaccine did not protect people from the new coronavirus variant, known as 501Y.V2 or B1351, that now dominates transmission in SA. ..
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