'I trust the science': Wits professors on the line in Covid-19 vaccine trial

The volunteers were screened on Friday, and those found eligible to participate were vaccinated on Tuesday at the Soweto trial site.

Dean of the faculty of health sciences at Wits and professor of surgery, Martin Veller, said of his enrolment: “The coronavirus pandemic has caused massive disruption in the world to public health and economies. As a consequence, a vaccine is probably the only way to manage in the medium term. We need to get a trial done quickly. Anyone who can enrol, and especially we in the health care fraternity who understand the risks, should.

“We really need to generate data applicable to the local context. A number of past vaccines have been shown to be highly effective in high-income settings, but when evaluated in low- and middle-income settings [like South Africa], the vaccines were found to be much less effective and, at times, not effective at all,” Madhi said.

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