The controversy surrounding the availability and efficacy of the vaccine to South Africans must be resolved as a matter of urgency. In the past few days we have witnessed unprecedented contradictions from the government and medical experts about the safety of the vaccine. Most concerning has been the peddling of conspiracy theories.

The utterances of the Progressive Health Forum, which counts among its members some esteemed medical experts such as Prof Glenda Gray, who is the president of the SA Medical Research Council, sent shivers down my spine. In their article they cite “SA among the poorest nations who will rely on the global Covax facility as the only hope of receiving an adequate vaccine supply in the next six to nine months, and only after that, the month-long vaccination programme will begin”...