South Africa’s health authorities should move fast to address concerns about the US-manufactured Johnson & Johnson vaccine whose use has been suspended in the country’s nationwide coronavirus vaccination programme, a parliamentarian said on Sunday.
Health Portfolio Committee chairperson Sibongiseni Dhlomo called on Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) to restore confidence in the J&J drug so that the country could resume the vaccination programme.
The vaccination rollout was suspended following a US government’s announcement that six women had sustained blood clots in the brain in that country, and one of them had died from the complications.
“We can’t ignore international opinion. However, our situation is that we must work quickly and faster and remove that concern as a factor to restart the vaccination programme,” Dhlomo said.
The parliamentarian admitted that the SAHPRA had acknowledged that there were no major safety concerns concerned the J&J vaccine.
“Their (SAHPRA) negotiations, their findings with the scientists in the country in liaison with the other scientists in the world should actually allow us to start again,” Dhlomo said.
The SAHPRA insisted there were no major safety concerns over the drug and would closely monitor high-risk individuals instead.
NM/jn/APA