There is no need to panic over the side effects of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine whose rollout has been paused in the country.
Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced on Tuesday night that the rollout of the Janssen vaccine, which has already been given to about 300,000 health workers, would be paused after six individuals from the US had developed blood clots soon after taking the vaccine. No similar cases have been reported in SA.
Dr Clare Cutland, a scientific co-ordinator at the Wits African Leadership In Vaccinology Expertise consortium, said the panic over the suspension was not warranted.
“The government was not overreacting when it made the decision to pause the rollout. It was a reasonable thing to do after six cases of adverse side effects were identified out of 6m people who took the vaccine,” said Cutland on Wednesday.
She said people were at higher risk of dying from Covid-19 than of dying from the vaccine’s side effects. “Women who take oral contraceptives are at higher risk of getting blood clots than those who have taken the vaccine,” said Cutland.
The pause of the rollout has also raised concerns about the government’s ability to fight Covid-19.
“Of course anti-vaxxers will grab at every opportunity to criticise the government when it comes to negative news about the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines. The pause might take a few days and will unlikely affect the rollout,” said Cutland.
Last month President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the Aspen manufacturing facility in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, where he announced that J&J and Aspen had formed a partnership to produce 31m dosses of Janssen. At least 7m people were expected to be inoculated by the end of June, with about 200,000 individuals vaccinated daily.
Mkhize on Wednesday told the portfolio committee on health that plans were under way for the arrival of 30m Pfizer doses on May 3. A minimum of 325,260 doses will be received weekly until the end of June. The government paid $10 (about R1,450) per dose for both the Janssen and Pfizer vaccines and the agreements have non-refundability clauses.
Mkhize said that J&J had withheld 20m doses, demanding that the minister of trade & industry write them a letter to thank them for their investments at Aspen. “They have told us if we don’t give them this letter we’d be making their global leadership nervous and to them we are not showing our political will to support them,” said Mkhize.
An administrator at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital said she has decided not to worry much about the possible side effects of the J&J vaccine.
“Since the minister’s announcement I have decided not to take the possible side effects to head because I don’t want to live in fear and cause myself a lot of stress,” said the worker.
A nurse from a KwaZulu-Natal hospital said she has been suffering from anxiety since she started developing pimples on her legs this week. She was vaccinated last month.
“Last night’s announcement has not done much to ease my nerves. But I don’t think that we will all get sick from the vaccine. It will only affect a few,” she said.
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