Opinion / Columnist
Zanu PF refused 1 million J&J vaccine doses, 6 months after FDA approval and now J&J is gold dust
03 Aug 2021 at 02:51hrs | Views
A few weeks ago, Zimbabwe was refused one million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine offered through the Africa covac initiative under the pretext the country did not have the extra cold facility required to store the vaccine. Now we know the real reason was because Zimbabwe's Medicine Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) had not approved the vaccine.
"ZIMBABWE may soon start administering the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine following approval by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe," reported Bulawayo24.
"The authority approved the use of Johnson and Johnson last week saying the vaccine had passed quality, safety and efficacy checks.
"The American vaccine is the fifth to be approved in Zimbabwe after the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac, the Russian Sputnik V and the Indian Covaxin."
Talk of someone being frivolous and facetious, MCAZ is frivolous, facetious and, worst of all, foolishly irresponsible!
On 27th February 2021, nearly six months ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. FDA has long since given the vaccine its full approval even after it was found to cause blood clot in very rare cases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the rest of the world have all approved the vaccine, all except the odd ball, MCAZ!
Of course, MCAZ does not have the technical expertise to carry out its own analysis of any vaccine trial data much less to initiate the clinical trials of its own. So, God knows what these "quality, safety and efficacy checks" are MCAZ has been carrying out and the checks were so important MCAZ could not be rushed into giving an EUA so the country can accept the offered the vaccine!
The irony is MCAZ approved the use of the Chinese vaccines long before WHO gave the vaccines the EUA. Many countries have not given the Chinese vaccines the EUA much less the full approval because the Chinese have not provided the detailed clinical trial data for peer review and verification.
The China claimed its Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have an efficacy of 77% plus after two doses but have not released the scientific data for verification. A leading Chinese scientist involved in the clinical trials of the vaccine has revealed the efficacy of the two vaccines is as low as 30% - a position supported by the reality on the ground.
Countries like Chile and China itself have reported of many of the people who have received the two doses of the Chinese vaccines, catching the highly contagious delta variant corona virus and going on to develop serious health problems and many have died.
Many people who had many of the WHO approved vaccines such as the Oxford/Astra and Johnson and Johnson vaccine have too caught the delta variant the important difference is that very few of they have developed serious health problems and even fewer have died.
To date, 1.4 million and 0.7 million Zimbabweans have received one vaccine jab and two jabs respectively of one or other of the two Chinese vaccines. And last month, the country took delivery of 2.5 million doses of the Chinese vaccines!
Zimbabwe is in the middle of a third wave of the corona virus in which 80% of the cases have the highly contagious delta variant. The government is reportedly ramping up its vaccination programme which, until now, has been very sluggish to say the least. The regime has promised to fully vaccinate 10 million people required to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year!
As things stand, the country will once again reject the Oxford/Astra, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and all the other WHO approved vaccines, even if they were offered as happened with Johnson and Johnson vaccine the facetious MCAZ has not approved any of these vaccines! And so the country is going full steam ahead with its vaccination programme using the Chinese vaccines, regardless they are not so effective against the delta variant.
"Zimbabwe refused 1 m Johnson and Johnson vaccines awaiting MCAZ approval, six months after the USA's FDA approval!" Whom are we kidding with all this facetious buffoonery!
"ZIMBABWE may soon start administering the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine following approval by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe," reported Bulawayo24.
"The authority approved the use of Johnson and Johnson last week saying the vaccine had passed quality, safety and efficacy checks.
"The American vaccine is the fifth to be approved in Zimbabwe after the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac, the Russian Sputnik V and the Indian Covaxin."
Talk of someone being frivolous and facetious, MCAZ is frivolous, facetious and, worst of all, foolishly irresponsible!
On 27th February 2021, nearly six months ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. FDA has long since given the vaccine its full approval even after it was found to cause blood clot in very rare cases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the rest of the world have all approved the vaccine, all except the odd ball, MCAZ!
Of course, MCAZ does not have the technical expertise to carry out its own analysis of any vaccine trial data much less to initiate the clinical trials of its own. So, God knows what these "quality, safety and efficacy checks" are MCAZ has been carrying out and the checks were so important MCAZ could not be rushed into giving an EUA so the country can accept the offered the vaccine!
The China claimed its Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have an efficacy of 77% plus after two doses but have not released the scientific data for verification. A leading Chinese scientist involved in the clinical trials of the vaccine has revealed the efficacy of the two vaccines is as low as 30% - a position supported by the reality on the ground.
Countries like Chile and China itself have reported of many of the people who have received the two doses of the Chinese vaccines, catching the highly contagious delta variant corona virus and going on to develop serious health problems and many have died.
Many people who had many of the WHO approved vaccines such as the Oxford/Astra and Johnson and Johnson vaccine have too caught the delta variant the important difference is that very few of they have developed serious health problems and even fewer have died.
To date, 1.4 million and 0.7 million Zimbabweans have received one vaccine jab and two jabs respectively of one or other of the two Chinese vaccines. And last month, the country took delivery of 2.5 million doses of the Chinese vaccines!
Zimbabwe is in the middle of a third wave of the corona virus in which 80% of the cases have the highly contagious delta variant. The government is reportedly ramping up its vaccination programme which, until now, has been very sluggish to say the least. The regime has promised to fully vaccinate 10 million people required to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year!
As things stand, the country will once again reject the Oxford/Astra, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and all the other WHO approved vaccines, even if they were offered as happened with Johnson and Johnson vaccine the facetious MCAZ has not approved any of these vaccines! And so the country is going full steam ahead with its vaccination programme using the Chinese vaccines, regardless they are not so effective against the delta variant.
"Zimbabwe refused 1 m Johnson and Johnson vaccines awaiting MCAZ approval, six months after the USA's FDA approval!" Whom are we kidding with all this facetious buffoonery!
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
