`South Africa has refused the US proposal to ship more Covid-19 vaccines to the country, nor has it requested more vaccines after the nearly 8 million doses previously donated by the US,` White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Psaki’s revelation surprised many people, because South Africa is becoming the focus of world public opinion, as the country was the first place to report to the World Health Organization (WHO) about the Omicron strain.
Unlike many neighboring countries in Africa, South Africa does not experience a vaccine shortage and has the highest vaccination rate on the continent.
South Africa’s vaccination rate is currently 42 doses/100 people, while the global average has exceeded 100/100 and is higher in developed countries.
Africa’s vaccine supply depends on bilateral agreements, donor shipments and from the Covax program.
Although supplies to Africa have increased, the Global Alliance for Immunization (GAVI) said vaccine batches have so far been delivered `unscheduled, with little warning and short expiration dates`.
After several months of waiting, many countries, including South Africa, suddenly received several million doses at the same time, overloading the storage infrastructure and the health system, which had limited capacity.
Research organization Airfinity said that in the past few months, South Africa has received 32.5 million vaccine doses, even though the country’s adult population is about 40 million people.
A healthcare worker received the Covid-19 vaccine in Soweto, South Africa, on February 17.
The vaccine supply has arrived so much that the South African Ministry of Health had to announce last week that it would temporarily stop receiving more because it had too much stock.
Ron Whelan, head of the Covid-19 task force of insurance company Discovery, which participates in vaccination deployment in South Africa, said the country does not lack stockpiles that meet standards, but has many problems.
According to Whelan, important influencing factors include vaccine hesitancy, people’s indifferent attitude and logistical barriers, when many people cannot travel to vaccination sites.
South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla pointed out that fake news is causing people, especially young groups, to lack trust in vaccines.
Along with the fact that vaccinated people can still be infected with the virus, a part of South Africans believes that vaccines are ineffective, without paying attention to the fact that vaccines help reduce the severity of Covid-19.
People’s ability to access vaccines is also an important factor hindering vaccination work.
Sarah Downs, a vaccine and infectious disease researcher at Wits University in Johannesburg, said vaccination sites are not being set up in people’s residential areas, while public transport systems are out of reach.
The White House said on November 29 that a number of federal agencies are working with African experts and organizations to provide resources, technical and financial support to increase vaccine access on the continent.
`Supply still plays an important role, but it’s time to turn our attention to vaccine transportation,` said Amanda Glassman, senior fellow at the US Center for Global Development.
A survey by the University of Johannesburg shows that white people in South Africa are more hesitant to get vaccinated than people of color, but are the ones who have a higher chance of getting vaccinated, due to easier access to health services.
Meanwhile, many other countries in Africa do not face these obstacles and conduct vaccination campaigns quite smoothly, despite limited supplies.
Although the exact origin of the Omicron strain is unknown as well as its level of transmission and ability to evade vaccines, international epidemiological experts believe that nCoV strains are an easily predictable consequence of unrest.
`While there is still a large number of unvaccinated people, nCoV still has the opportunity to mutate and continue to spread,` said Dr. Michael Saag, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama.
