Open letter addressed to Health Minister Joe Paahla
10 November 2021
Dear Minister,
SAMA would like to recognize the contribution made by Johnson and Johnson, and the entire Sisonke team with respect to ensuring that South Africa’s healthcare workers were given access to vaccinations, in difficult circumstances, earlier this year. We would also like to applaud the rollout of the Sisonke Phase 2 trial, in recognition of the fact that immunity wanes over time.
However, given our shared vaccination goals of maximum uptake and maximal efficacy, we respectfully need to ask some questions on behalf of all healthcare workers:
What is it that informs the decision to roll out the Sisonke phase trial 2 in isolation?
Will Healthcare workers be given the right to choose which booster they wish to take? (There is clear evidence1,2,3 that boosting with heterologous vaccines, like the Pfizer vaccine, gives an added benefit, at least in terms of immune response. In addition we applaud the pro-active decision by the Western Cape DOH to push for access to a Pfizer booster for all Healthcare workers who do not wish to be part of the Sisonke 2 trial)
If a healthcare worker has experienced a previous adverse reaction with the J&J vaccine, or simply wishes to avail themselves of a different booster, how will that be dealt with?
SAMA feels strongly that in order to preserve the trust placed in all healthcare workers, our autonomy and freedom of choice between accepted options should be protected.
We have already seen significant vaccine hesitancy in South Africa and feel that any form of coercion might worsen that situation by promoting mistrust.
As such we would strongly urge you Minister, to please ensure that the logistics and implementation arrangements are pro-actively dealt with, to ensure that all vaccine boosters be made readily available to healthcare workers. We urge Pfizer to assist where possible to facilitate the requisite regulatory processes.
Yours Faithfully,
Issued by Angelique Coetzee, Chairperson, SAMA, 10 November 2021
References:
Huat et al. Differential immunogenicity of homologous versus heterologous boost in Ad26.COV2.S vaccine recipients.https://doi.org/10.
Atmar et al. Heterologous SARS-Cov2 booster vaccinations. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.
Sablerolles et al. Immunogenicity and reactogenicity of booster vaccinations after Ad26.COV2.S priming.https://doi.org/10.
