[LISTEN] Senior Wits clinicians volunteer for Covid-19 vaccine trial

The clinicians were screened on Friday and those found eligible to participate in the trial were vaccinated at the Soweto trial site in Johannesburg.

The trial aims to find a vaccine that will prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is the virus that causes Covid-19.

Dr June Fabian, nephrologist and Research Director at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre says her motivation for participating in the trial is that she wants to support local scientists to do world-class science.

"I think it’s amazing that South Africa is a Covid-19 vaccine trial site and to be a part of that is very exciting. We must support each other as a Wits community and we must support our colleagues,” says Fabian.

Leading HIV clinician, Professor Francois Venter says participation in the trial is important to demonstrate the safety of the vaccine.

“This collection of Wits Faculty, between them, have first-authored some of the highest-impact medical articles on pandemics. It’s important to demonstrate how urgent and safe these [Covid-19 vaccine] studies are, and I have enough confidence in the science to put myself on the line,” says Venter.

According to Wits Professor of Vaccinology, Shabir Madhi, who leads the South African Covid-19 vaccine trial, the legacy of vaccines shows that they don’t necessarily work similarly across different populations.

“We need to generate data applicable to the local context. Several past vaccines are highly effective in high-income settings, but when evaluated in low- and middle-income settings [like South Africa], the vaccines were found to be much less effective and, at times, not effective at all,” says Madhi.

Madhi added: “If we want to make informed decisions at an early stage about whether these vaccines are going to benefit people in South Africa, it’s critical that we undertake the clinical evaluation during the start of the entire programme, rather than at the latter stage."