South Africa has become one of the most prominent countries in the map of the spread of the Corona virus after it became the source of one of the most dangerous versions of the mutated virus, and after the confusion that sparked by its use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Momentum Health Solutions organization has warned that a third wave of the Corona virus is imminent in South Africa if the official authorities do not start a large and rapid campaign to vaccinate the population.

The organization added - in a statement - that the vaccine should be available to the general population in May or next June, if the current estimates of vaccine supplies are correct and accurate.

The South African Ministry of Health received one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the India Serum Institute earlier this month.

However, last week it appeared that this vaccine provides the minimum protection against mild to moderate infection of the strain most prevalent now in South Africa, and the Minister of Health confirmed that the expiration date of vaccinations is April 30th.

Herd immunity

The epidemiologist and health care strategist, Buschof Stinkamp, ​​had made it clear that "the strongest line of defense for the country's population against the virus is to ensure that South Africa reaches herd immunity."

Stinkamp indicated - in a statement to Al Jazeera Net - that this cannot be done by dealing with the virus with an individual mentality, indicating that only if efforts are combined will there be a greater opportunity to limit the spread of the virus with the hope of eliminating it within the next few years.

And the South African Ministry of Health believes - according to the propaganda leaflets it has published throughout the country - that herd immunity is not the best solution, and that it intends to make receiving the vaccine very easy, so that once it is released to the general public, the matter will be as simple as contacting the general practitioner and informing him of the desire to receive the vaccine, After that, you will go to his clinic and receive the vaccination, according to the ministry.

A gradual approach

The South African Minister of Health, Zwaili Mkhize, had stated that the South African government had offered its shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine to the African Union to share it with countries on the continent that were not affected by the new variant virus present in the country.

Minister Mkhizi indicated - in a statement to Al Jazeera Net - that the matter was disappointing after discovering that the AstraZeneca vaccine that South Africa initially obtained had limited effectiveness against the mutated virus that was first discovered in the country, but he stressed that transferring the vaccine to sister African governments will allow To the government to recover the cost of the shipment.

The minister had indicated to the media that there is no dispute that the "Johnson & Johnson" vaccine has an efficacy of 57% against the new variant and it completely protects against dangerous diseases or death.

Regarding the quantities obtained by his country, Mkhize said that his government had purchased 9 million doses of this vaccine, as well as securing 500 thousand doses for free.

He expected an additional 500,000 doses to arrive in the next four weeks, supplemented with another 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which is expected to be received at the end of next March.

Racial vaccine

Shabir Madi, a professor at the University of Wits and the principal investigator of the AstraZeneca vaccine trial, indicated that there is a scientific reason to believe that the first vaccine the country obtained was effective against acute virus infection, so it is still necessary to use it.

And Professor Shabir Madi - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - that the majority of people participating in the study of the vaccine in South Africa had mild symptoms.

Shabir explained that two-thirds of the cases were mild and one-third were moderate, so it is not possible to judge by using this data, especially with regard to whether the old vaccine protects against severe diseases or not, but he stressed that all evidence indicates that the new vaccine actually protects against forms of disease Severe.

And the South African journalist, Simon Allison, had indicated in a report that the vaccines that were made available to the developing world were either not tested, like the Chinese and Russian vaccines, for which adequate clinical trial data were not issued - or they are too expensive.

South Africa, for example, has requested 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but it will pay more than twice what the European Union pays for each dose.

While the European Union published a statement explaining that it was entitled to a lower price per dose because it invested in developing the vaccine, journalist Simon Allison confirmed - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - that the AstraZeneca vaccine had been tested literally on the bodies of South African citizens who volunteered to be Part of the clinical trial in Johannesburg, he says.

Most of the vaccine shipments produced so far have gone to rich countries, in exchange for limited quantities in the interest of poor countries, something that the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, considered a "catastrophic moral failure", while some activists in South Africa expressed their fear that the vaccines would pay The current world is again from apartheid.

South Africa began administering the vaccine to health workers, while President Cyril Ramaphosa was one of the first recipients of the vaccine at the Kailitsha District Hospital on Wednesday, to encourage citizens to speed up receiving the vaccine after the country lost about 663 health care workers due to the virus.