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(Adds background, further comments from Madhi)
By Alexander Winning
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The lead investigator on the
South African trial of AstraZeneca's vaccine said he
believed it had a major role to play in Africa and globally,
despite data showing the vaccine offered minimal protection
against mild-to-moderate COVID-19 disease caused by the
country's dominant virus variant.
Shabir Madhi from the University of the Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg told Reuters he would begin rolling out the 1
million AstraZeneca doses already in the country immediately,
since they expire in April and it would be reckless to waste
them.
"It doesn't make any sense to have 1 million doses of
vaccine available to us which are known to be safe and to not
start distributing it at least for high-risk groups," Madhi said
in an interview.
South African health officials said on Sunday they were
putting AstraZeneca vaccinations on hold temporarily while they
sought scientific advice on how to proceed. Vaccinations had
been due to start soon, after the first vaccine doses arrived by
plane from India last week.
The country, which has recorded the most coronavirus
infections on the African continent and over 46,000 deaths, aims
to vaccinate 40 million people, or two-thirds of its population
to reach some level of herd immunity.
Madhi said it was likely the AstraZeneca shot would protect
against severe COVID-19, since it was developed using a similar
technology to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has
been shown to be effective in preventing severe COVID-19.
South Africa needed to recalibrate its expectations about
vaccines this week after the trial showing reduced efficacy
against mild-to-moderate illness caused by the more contagious
501Y.V2 variant, as well as to decide which groups to target and
to start rolling out doses next week, he said.
"To start turning your back on a vaccine that could
potentially save lives, I couldn't understand the logic behind
it," Madhi said.
He said he would use the AstraZeneca vaccine to start
protecting South Africa's elderly and those with co-morbidities.
The country's initial vaccination plan was to meant to start
with health workers, but Madhi said the majority of the illness
that was likely to occur among that group was mild-to-moderate
infection and so the AstraZeneca jab would be better deployed on
those at greater risk of severe illness.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning
Editing by Alison Williams and Bernadette Baum)
