Government should provide Covid-19 vaccine booster jabs to vulnerable groups than vaccinating teenagers who are not at high risk of getting severely ill and being hospitalised.
This is the view of vaccinologist and University of the Witwatersrand's Prof Shabir Madhi, who was reacting to government’s programme of vaccinating children.
On October 15, health minister Joe Phaahla announced that government will be vaccinating teenagers. Phaahla also announced that additional doses will be given to health workers and individuals with compromised immunity
This includes those who are on long-term oral steroid therapy for autoimmune conditions and various treatments for haematological or immune malignancies.
The group will also comprise those with solid organ or bone marrow transplants, renal dialysis and primary immunological disorders.
Vaccination of children from the age of 12 to 17 began on Wednesday last week.
Madhi, who has served in the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, commended government for introducing booster jabs and said they would go a long way to protect high-risk groups.
“I was recommending booster jabs in April this year...Health workers should be boosted immediately and they can be boosted with a Pfizer vaccine. The use J&J followed by Pfizer probably induces a better immune response than the use of two doses of J&J. They will be better protected against mild Covid and infection.
“When it comes to the public, a booster dose should be provided to people over the age of 55 and people with underlying immunal depressive condition such as those with cancer,” he said.
But Madhi feels it is more important for government to provide a booster jab than vaccinating teenagers.
“My advice for SA is that we need to continue focusing on vaccinating 80% to 90% of people over the age of 50. Then our priority should be to give the booster dose to the high-risk individuals as well as healthcare workers.
Madhi said vaccinating children between the ages of 12 and 17 because there's extra vaccines available “misses the point about why you are vaccinating”.
“You are vaccinating to reduce severe hospitalisation and death. Children between 12 and 17 years have got a very low risk of ending up in hospital. We actually do not know how a single dose of vaccine will work in that population in protecting them against infection or anything else. It is very strange that we seem to be implementing a policy which has not been tested in terms of what the benefit of it will be,” Madhi said.
Madhi said his interpretation of the situation is that government has struggled to penetrate its targeted group with the vaccine and now it has excess jabs which will expire in the future.
“What we’ve seen in the past is that the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine against hospitalisation and death is more than 90%. In the high risk individual the efficacy of the vaccine is in the region 75% to 80%. By giving them the third dose, we’re helping them increase their protection, especially against hospitalisation and death to be around 90%. These are the people who’ve got the highest risk of ending up in a hospital if they get the virus.”
He added that people who have received two doses of Pfizer vaccine should receive a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine. He recommended a Pfizer booster to those who received a J&J vaccine.
“This is because that combination seem to induce much stronger responses than if you boost with a J&J vaccine. The combination of vaccine seems to be giving better immune responses than when you have used two doses of the same vaccine.”
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