Vaccine won't fix healthcare system, says Young Nurses Indaba
Some healthcare workers are warning that the government is pushing a dangerous narrative with the arrival of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
On Wednesday the government began its first rollout of the 800 000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize were among those who got jabbed.
The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union says the process has been rushed.
"Why are we rushing giving a vaccine that is going to be done in a trial mode? They are using us as guinea pigs, anything can happen because it might or might not be effective,” says the unions’s general-secretary Rich Sicina.
“We would have preferred it if the government to give the vaccine time while correcting the infrastructure, human resource, and material resource problems.
"We are seeing a government that thinks this vaccine is a magical pill that will solve our issues as far as Covid-19 is concerned. They are disregarding the fact that the World Health Organisation said that the vaccine is not here to put an end to the pandemic, but it is here to complement the measures that are out here and not to replace them.”
Sicina says health workers are disgruntled as they are still struggling with the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE).
He said nurses are concerned that once they get the shot, they will be told they cannot also receive PPE.
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