The South African Communist Party (SACP) has called on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure the equal distribution of vaccines to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic across the globe.
Shipments of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines are starting to be distributed to various countries – as nations experience second and third surges of COVID-19.
The SACP’s General-Secretary, Blade Nzimande, was briefing the media on outcomes of its Central Committee meeting.
“The SACP calls upon the WHO to ensure that COVID-19 vaccine development is geared towards making the COVID-19 vaccine universally accessible as a public good. As the COVID-19 global pandemic crisis is underlined, any part of the world would affect the entire world, so there must be equitable distribution of the vaccine worldwide.”
Health experts have encouraged people to embrace the COVID-19 vaccine expected to be rolled out in the country in the second quarter of next year.
Speaking during a panel discussion briefing hosted by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, the Ministerial Advisory Committee’s Professor Salim Abdool Karim says at this stage it’s not yet clear if the already developed vaccines for the coronavirus will be effective on the new variant of COVID-19.
Notes from the health briefing:
Meanwhile, the SACP has slammed the anti-vaccine stance being touted by some in society saying this is tantamount to the AIDS denialism of the early 1990s. The SACP’s comment follows the statements made over a week ago by Chief Justice Moegeng Moegeng to nurses at Johannesburg’s Tembisa Hospital.
Moegeng suggested that there may be some companies that are developing vaccines driven by a satanic agenda.
“The central committee further denounced unscientific utterances promoting conspiracy theories and quackery to be quite honest against scientific vaccines development having in the past as a country gone through a devasting period of aids denialism we cannot allow another bout of dangerous vaccine denialism and anti-vaccine postures,” says Nzimande.
