South Africa's vaccine advance brings hope

The WHO-aided tech transfer hub in South Africa is set to change the outlook for a continent deprived of COVID-19 vaccines

- LATHA JISHNU

SOUTH AFRICAN scientists have shown the world that they have what it takes to produce a new-era vaccine, so far the preserve of a couple of companies in the rich world. Their breakthrough—a copy of Moderna's mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 which is, along with Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, much sought after to fight the pandemic.

The vaccine itself may take a year or longer to be approved. Cape Town-based company Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines has made only microlitres of it, reports the journal Nature, and clinical trials are expected to start only in November. But have no doubt about the significance of what South African scientists have achieved. It is a landmark win in a continent whose ability to fend for itself in the crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been practically written off. South Africa has proved that with a little bit of financial help from the rich nations and technological aid from the World Health Organization (WHO), it can do what the developed nations have done.

This is a huge morale-booster for Africa, which exemplifies the glaring inequity in access to vaccines, with close to 90 per cent of the population yet to get even a single dose. This is because vaccine production is, for the most part, concentrated in a few rich countries, and supplies have not gone to low-income nations, barring a scatter of doses as donations.