Durban – KwaZulu-Natal Health HOD, Dr Sandile Tshabalala, has debunked rumours that the Covid-19 vaccine was designed to kill black people.
He has called on the people of KwaZulu-Natal to ignore the widespread fake news and get a jab, in order to avoid unnecessary and preventable deaths due to the virus.
"Despite 14 295 people losing their lives to Covid in KZN, many are still unprepared to take a vaccine that has been found to be safe and highly effective and which could help them if they get infected," Tshabalala said.
Speaking during a briefing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Pietermaritzburg campus on Thursday, he said vaccination involves giving a person a small, harmless amount of an infectious agent so that the person's immune system is able to “train” itself for the next time it meets the same infectious agent.
Tshabalala said it was odd and unfortunate that none of the vaccines in the country’s comprehensive vaccination programme had ever been doubted or subjected to scrutiny.
“The truth of the matter is there is a vaccination programme in South Africa, which starts as soon as you are born. You get to be vaccinated from that time on until you are at least 14 years old. You get to be vaccinated with different vaccines, which themselves have different things in them, and as such you are not even aware what is in this vaccine. But today you want to question this vaccine? That is not normal.
“Also, there are preservatives in all these vaccines that we do not question. But this one we want to question?
“The reality of the matter is, if anyone wanted to kill South Africans using a vaccine, they could have achieved that long ago. So, it is mere fake news that now there is somebody who wants to kill South Africans using any vaccine for that matter. If you’re saying it’s aimed at killing Black people… Everyone across the racial spectrum is getting vaccinated. Then, why would it kill only black people? It does not make sense. So, there is nothing like that,” Tshabalala said.
Dr Tshabalala also urged the public to ask to get tested for Covid-19 even when they were suffering from what appeared to be a bout of flu.
IOL