No legal framework for mandatory vaccination in workplace, says Madhi
Wits Vaccinology Professor Shabir Madhi says the law in South Africa doesn't allow employers to prescribe mandatory vaccination.
The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) called on people, who could lose their jobs due to their refusal to be inoculated, to come forward.
But Madhi warns there will be a point where employers will have to draw up guidelines to protect everyone.
“Some countries have started doing that, where certain categories of workers it has become mandatory for workers to take the vaccine. In South Africa, we haven’t adapted the law to make the vaccine mandatory, so right now there isn’t a legal framework to make it mandatory.
“But I think we will reach a point where some level of requirement will exist for an employee to enter in certain workspaces, not only for their own benefits but for the protection of the colleagues that they are working with.
South Africa has seen some vaccine hesitancy, but Mahdi says only one in three-hundred-thousand people die as a result of severe vaccine side-effects.
“The side effects that could result in death are the blood clotting condition thrombosis where you get clotting of the large blood vessels in the brain. But the chances of that happening is one in about three-hundred-thousand people that are getting vaccinated particularly between females under the age of 50.
“Another important side effect condition is what we call Guillain-Barré syndrome where a person might become temporarily unable to walk, but again the chances of that happening is close to one in three-hundred-thousand people. That condition is treatable but it will result in hospitalisation, but most people recover from it.”
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