NATIONAL NEWS - As South Africa emerges from the third wave of the pandemic, all efforts are being channeled into encouraging more people to use the opportunity to be vaccinated.
In October, two national campaigns to drive vaccination uptake, the Vooma Vaccination Weekend and the #RollUpYourSleevesSA were launched by the National Department of Health and the Solidarity Fund.
Although South Africa has sufficient vaccines so that everyone who wants to be vaccinated can do so, we realise that people have some very real concerns when choosing not to vaccinate.
One of these relates to the speed at which the COVID-19 vaccine was developed and rolled out. Just over a year after the virus was identified, the first person was vaccinated in the UK. This understandably, causes a lot of anxiety in people.
There are however several factors which has enabled the rapid development of the vaccine which is both effective and safe.
Once the outbreak was identified as a coronavirus – albeit a new form now named COVID-19 - scientists around the world were able to use of the research they already had to develop a vaccine. The vaccine platforms that were used to make COVID-19 vaccines were well established for many decades and scientists were able to pivot these platforms. These platforms also had information about safety.
COVID-19 is part of the family of coronavirus’s that cause influenza, so scientists were already ahead of the game with decades of research information that could be used to develop the vaccine.
For the first time, technology and political will also came together to enable global collaboration that allowed scientists to share insights into how their experiments were going.
Once success was seen in the laboratory and all the safety protocols and approvals were gained, global clinical trials began. Thousands of volunteers of different ages, races, and ethnicities participated in the trials. Although there was urgency to find a successful vaccine, none of the testing phases were skipped!
In the development process, mRNA technology was shown to be very effective. mRNA vaccines can be developed quickly, cost effectively and can be administered safely. mRNA platforms have been in development for many years.
It is also very adaptable and scientists can quickly adapt the formulae to respond to new variants which also makes it appropriate for COVID-19.
The mRNA vaccine does not enter the nucleus of your cells and cannot therefore change them! Rather it “teaches” the body’s immune system to manufacture a copy of the virus’s “spike” protein, which it then recognises and begins to create antibodies. If exposed to the actual virus, the body recalls how to trigger this immune response to help you to fight the virus.
In addition, the vaccine does not remain in the body. Once it begins “teaching” your body to recognise the virus, it begins to disintegrate, usually within 2-3 days of being vaccinated.
For the billions of people who have already been vaccinated throughout the world, we know with certainty that the vaccine is safe and that it can prevent serious illness and death.
Role players in healthcare have made it easier for South Africans to report side effects following vaccination, through the health facility at which the vaccines was administered, on the Med Safety App managed by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), or by calling the COVID-19 hotline on 0800 029 999.
Join the conversation at:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solidarityfundrsa/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SolidarityRSA
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/solidarityfundrsa
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solidarity-fund/?originalSubdomain=za
- #ThatsSolidarity #RollUpYourSleevesSA
NDoH Contact Centre number
The NDoH contact centres are able to assist with vaccination, registration and booking support, COVID-19 health related queries as well as post vaccination medical care enquiries.
The contact centre is available on: 0800-029-999.
The sites are open from 07:00 to 20:00, Monday to Friday and 08:00 to 18:00 on weekends and public holidays.
For people wanting information outside of these hours you can visit the SA Coronavirus website or use the WhatsApp Support Line: 0600-123456.
'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news'
