Imtiaz Sooliman – Don’t rush the roll out, cautions doctor Imtiaz
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The potential for a COVID-19 vaccine to become effective in the future is uncertain due to the lack of exact timeline and potential risks. The vaccine is still under experimental phase and may not be registered for use in the United States or South Africa. The speakers emphasize the importance of treating patients with COVID-19 rather than just vaccinating them and stress the need for more healthcare workers to prevent third pandemics. They also discuss the importance of upgrading healthcare workers and increasing oxygen supplies to manage the crisis and emphasize the need for a parallel vaccination campaign.
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From the beginning, it was when covid 19 hit the country,
everybody was starting to panic, and the solution, everybody said,
lies in the vaccine. The problem is that we know the that the virus
that's so aggressive that has killed so many people worldwide,
that is still very active all over the world, and the numbers haven't
really come down relatively it means it at some point, this is
the type of virus that's going to mutate. And when you're pushing
for a vaccine very early in the in the history of the virus, it's
possible that you're going to get the wrong vaccine. And that's
exactly what happened in the restaurant case. It may not be
wrong for some other parts of the world, but for South Africa,
because we got a mutant sprint. And in fact, new researchers just
come out that in the first part of last year, there were 42 different
variants, of which 16 were not recorded. And of the 16, the new
one is, you know, the fo, 1b 501, y, v2, is one of those variants.
So we Yes, it's understandable way people responded. There was panic,
especially with the healthcare workers. I mean, what kind of
safeguard do they have? They're losing colleagues, they're losing
family members, and you understand the difficulty that they're facing
because they are in the front line, but we had to be prudent,
because if you take all the precautions, you know, and all and
still being worried about getting the vaccine, which is important,
and you make all the arrangements, you spend, all the money, you
create, all the hope the vaccine comes. And we can see how people
were dejected. The medical fraternity. Were very dejected
when this is any kind of vaccine was not known or not seen to be
positive support or works against the salary constraint.
Fortunately, there was a replacement. Professor, Glenda
Gray was very good in getting the Johnson and Johnson one. But this
one also, although it's 57 is a good start, it's much more than
22% it gives the medical fraternity more hope, you know.
And I'm very happy for them, because, you know, they've all
been racing to the to the sites, to the 18 sites in the country, to
get vaccinated. But I say we need to be cautious, because this
vaccine is under study at the moment. It's not a vaccine that
has been released after studies have been done. Those 80,000
people taking the vaccine are part of the study. They're not a result
of people getting the vaccine after the study was done. So it's
a vaccine. It's still in the in the study stages, but given the
circumstances, because people say, Okay, it's it has been safe, and
yes, from the last few days, the reports coming from the medical
fraternity, you get a bit of a fever, some body ache, you know,
and maybe someone, some of them, got a rash or two, but nothing
unmanageable, and within two or three days, they've recovered. So
the safety aspect is there? What we don't know is, how long will
the vaccine last for? In terms of antibodies, for how many months
will it cause, you know,
immunization? Secondly, will it work if new strains come? We don't
know that. And strangers keeps and the strains keep changing, so we
don't know that. And also, the vaccine is still not registered in
its own country, in a for, for for use, for in the general public, in
America, it's still under experimental phase. And in South
Africa too, it's not recommended or not registered for use in the
general public. It's an experimental phase. So all those,
all those who have registered or taken the vaccine, have to be part
of this two year trial for the vaccine itself. And what is the
risk to that? According to you?
Well, to me, I the part time worried about is. And, you know,
I'm, I'm hopeful that people will be and I mean, medical
professionals will be rational, because if everybody takes that
vaccine, they need to understand that although they are vaccinated,
they may not be immunized. Mm, so, in other words, we have, we
vaccinated so many people, but I'm so confident that you can walk
into a ward and say, discovered 19 patients here, and I'm not I'm not
worried. I'm vaccinated and I'm immunized. The danger of that is
you can get infection even though you've been vaccinated. And worse
than that, you can carry, carry it onto your family. You can pass it
on to your family. You can be a carrier, because though you're
vaccinated and you don't have the right amount of antibodies and the
right response to the vaccine, it can be a problem. So we can
actually create a false sense of security,
which can be a very big danger. It's been a huge danger. Look,
already the government is some places are shutting down field
hospitals, but I'll be honest, I was in a favor of field hospitals.
From the beginning, my idea was, or my thought was, let's upgrade
existing hospitals. Then you got them post covid 19 for anything
else. Now you decommission field hospitals and all that money is
gone. It got no value. And we set the example. We took a hospital in
Mitchell plain.
Nine, and we converted the whole Ward into a dedicated covid 19
facility at for a cost of 10 million Rand. But it's therefore
always now for somebody else did something similar in settlers, and
we did something similar in Bucha hospital. So we we keep harping on
the vaccination, but if the strains keep changing, we still
know we have made no progress in terms of dealing with the virus,
where we should be focusing, with life saving with a definite end
result, put oxygen points in all the hospital, put stuff. I mean,
up till now, nobody has addressed the issue of putting more staff to
back up the healthcare workers in hospital. We've already shot short
staffed even before the pandemic came. And the pandemic, I mean, it
exhausted the healthcare personnel. And in the second wave,
how many passed on? Many passed on an exhaustion is one of the main
criteria for that. So we need to spend a lot of money putting
healthcare workers in and putting oxygen points and oxygen machines
to be on standby in case the third wave hits us. What do you suggest
we do then to go about this in in a better way,
uh, treating this
more to our advantage. Look, it's a given if, if the third wave
comes, we will know what this virus does in the second wave. Of
course, it required far more oxygen than the first wave because
of the strain it the type of condition it caused people needed
much more oxygen than the first wave. So let's be prudent. Let's
hope it doesn't happen. Let's hope it doesn't require that amount of
oxygen. But we know what it has done, so the rational thing to be
to do, because a lot of people died outside hospital. They died
in their cars, they died in accused and they died in the
emergency because there was not enough oxygen points, and it was
not enough oxygen. So we can't save everybody. Let's be just we
can't save everybody. But if you put more oxygen points, increase
the bulk oxygen supply, put in more stuff to manage the people,
we can do a huge difference. You know, if the same type of wave
comes the third time around. The second important point is to make
sure ask the public, at their own cost, who can afford it by pulse
oximeters, one per house or one per two houses, because a lot of
the patients who came to hospital, the oxygen saturation was already
40% and they were smiling, and they didn't know they were ill,
and they just dropped dead at the hospital because they look so
well, so people having pulse oximeters at home just randomly.
Even if there's nothing wrong, you just test yourself and test your
own family. That could be life saving again. The other thing that
could be life saving is putting oxygen machines in ambulances,
because ambulances are the first port of call. They fetch the
patients from the home and many ambulances were driving in
circles, round and round and round until a point became available at
the hospital, whether private or public, whilst having oxygen
machines and oxygen in ambulance, that patient could be kept alive
for six, 810, hours until the hospital the ambulance can find a
hospital that can take the Patient. Now, all these
arrangements should be put in place without relying on the
vaccination. The vaccination is a parallel program. Yes, if the 57%
works and it works against the South African strain, and
antibodies develop, and antibodies last six, 810, months, it's
fantastic. It's a great achievement. Run parallel what the
preparation of the patients, but at the same time also reset other
vaccines. They said, You know, some other vaccines are far more
efficient, but they haven't been tested in HIV patients, or other
type, you know, or some similar kind of studies in the South
Africa situation. But we can then use those vaccines in non HIV
patients, in patients where, if it works against the South African
strain. The trial is done. Let's use it in non HIV patients,
because then you have a basket of vaccines modified to work in
different conditions, in different patients with different
comorbidities, or no comorbidities. On condition, they
work against the South African strain. You run a parallel program
for