First published in Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper
A group of South African scientists and researchers took the first steps in the elusive hunt for a vaccine in the first weeks that the Covid-19 virus started felling lives in the country in the same way it was doing in other parts of the world.
Our chase for a vaccine in a world changed by a virus represents humankind as an exquisite ecosystem, each person playing some part – not for glory or personal gain but because our very survival depends on it.
The behind-the-scenes work was completed by the first half of the year, so that by the middle of June scientists and researchers were ready with the public announcement that it was all systems go for clinical trials.
Molefe Seeletsa SAHPRA has also noted that the vaccine could potentially also have adverse effects in some individuals. A picture taken on 4 December 4 2020 shows the production of Russia s Gam-COVID-Vac vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), registered under trade name Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in coordination with the Russian Defence Ministry, at the facility of Russia s biotech company BIOCAD in Strelna outside Saint Petersburg. Picture: Olga MALTSEVA/AFP
This follows the government’s warning against a “fake news” narrative after Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng defended his controversial prayer that any vaccine that was “of the devil” be destroyed.