Government and the President’s deadly vaccine lies must stop now
20 January 2021
Note to Editors: Please find attached a soundbite by John Steenhuisen MP.
President Ramaphosa’s solemn assurance that his government has been negotiating for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines for the past six months is fast being unmasked as a damage-control lie. The latest exposure of this lie comes in the form of a recorded phone conversation between a Pfizer employee and a Northern Cape businessman in which it is revealed that the pharmaceutical company tried, over and over for many months, to enter into talks with the SA government, to no avail.
Aside from an initial conversation in July last year and one subsequent meeting with the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines (MAC) – which provided no further guidance on government’s vaccination plans – government showed no interest in pursuing negotiations until it was far too late.
And Pzifer is not the only example of this. Earlier it was revealed by Johnson and Jonson – who have been testing and producing vaccines right here in SA in partnership with Aspen Pharmacare – that government showed no initial interest in pursuing their vaccine and even cancelled their scheduled meeting back in August. By the time government finally sprang into action, it was too late as all 300 million doses had been snapped up by other countries. And I know of yet another reputable manufacturer who confirmed a similar story to me.