At this time of writing in October 2021, only 20% of South Africans have been vaccinated against Covid-19. The debate continues as to how to tackle vaccine hesitancy in South Africa. The Department of Health has tried several novel strategies such as introducing vaccination at social grant sites, to tackle access to vaccines and improve vaccination rates, especially for persons over the age of 60 years. Vaccines are not only being administered at central, regional and local hospitals but also at local pharmacies, drive through vaccination sites and many other sites including mobile units. Yet we are struggling to reach our target to get the majority of people over the age of 60 years to be vaccinated by the end of 2021.
Recent data from many regions in South Africa suggests that the majority of COVID-19 hospital admissions, often resulting in serious illness or death, have been in those individuals who are not vaccinated. Thus vaccine hesitancy is not only placing a significant burden on health services, but it is significantly limiting our goal of national vaccine coverage so that we can protect vulnerable members of the population and try and end the pandemic, and get our economy and health services back to an even keel.
There are many reasons for vaccine hesitancy and vaccine denialism. Vaccine hesitancy is quite a complex issue and is variable across time and place, as well to specific diseases and its attendant vaccines. From my perspective of seeing out-patients, the majority of those not vaccinated for COVID-19 are vaccine hesitant and a very small percentage of people are true vaccine denialists in whom no persuasive viewpoints will change their minds. Thus, if we are going to reach a target of at least 70% of the population to be vaccinated, we need to convince the vaccine hesitant group. How do we achieve this goal?
One of the principal ways of tackling vaccine hesitancy is education and providing accurate information about the benefits of vaccination. In this regard the Health Department, health professionals as well as many public and private institutions and media enterprises such as television and print media have played a significant role in communicating with the public in a clear and transparent manner on the benefits of vaccination. However, this has thus far proved not to be enough in getting sufficient numbers to be vaccinated.
One of the ways of tackling vaccine hesitancy has been vaccine mandates. Countries such as France, Italy, United Kingdom and some states in the United States have introduced vaccination mandates in all their health facilities. Wits University is one of the first tertiary institutions which has mandated Covid-19 vaccination for all staff and students. Many other large businesses in South Africa have introduced Covid-19 vaccine mandates in their companies. Recently certain private hospital groups such as Mediclinic and Life Healthcare have also instituted vaccination mandates for Covid-19. It is my hope that the educational and vaccination mandate strategies will significantly increase the total number of individuals vaccinated in South Africa so that we could slowly move to some form of normality in early 2022.
The latest issue of the journal marks 3 years of publication since the inaugural issue in March 2019. The editorial board extends its gratitude to all the authors, reviewers, publishers and support staff that have made this journal a success. Wits J Clin Med was the first medical journal in the country highlighting COVID-19 related health matters in South Africa and like many issues in the past, the current issue continues to highlight COVID-19 related health problems in South Africa.
Pravin Manga
Editor
Wits Journal of Clinical Medicine