It is imperative that the South African public be told that the pharmaceutical companies cannot be sued where the COVID-19 vaccines cause harmful side-effects. As such, government must publicise that a fully funded and easy to use COVID-19 vaccine compensation scheme is being established forthwith to compensate vaccine recipients who may develop rare, but harmful side-effects.
In 2009, the UK government fast-tracked the Pandemrix vaccine in order to protect the population against swine flu. In doing so, the UK government did not hesitate to indemnify GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) against any serious side effects of the vaccine. The exercise however cost the UK taxpayer millions of pounds in compensation. Soon after an intensive vaccination campaign, it was detected that Pandemrix was the cause of a significant number of vaccine recipients developing narcolepsy. Needless to say, the PR fallout of this serious vaccine side-effect was disastrous for the UK government and more importantly, served to fuel anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and myths.
In its publicity campaign relating to the roll-out of the vaccine, the UK government failed to mention the indemnity given to GSK and as a result compensation would nevertheless be made available to victims who suffered serious side effects as a result of the vaccine.
The South African government should learn a thing or two of the UK’s experience in regard to the rushed implementation of the Pandemrix vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccines, which are due to be introduced within this year, were developed in record time and simply imploring that as citizens we must just understand the science will not prevent rational and healthy scepticism in regard to the vaccines and their possible side-effects. In order to mitigate against the spread of fake news and the proliferation of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine myths, it is important that it is made public that in the event of any serious side effects as a result of the vaccines, citizens will not be able to sue the big pharmaceutical companies.
The only way to deal with this is the immediate creation of a no-fault immunisation compensation scheme. Whilst there has been some mention of this by government, the details are very vague and sketchy and no specific provision has been made for such a scheme in budget presentations relating to the costs to the taxpayer of the roll-out of the vaccines. We already have similar compensation schemes, such as the Road Accident Fund and the Compensation Fund available in terms of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, although one must hope that an immunisation compensation scheme will be far better implemented and managed than the Road Accident Fund.
The fact of the matter is that suppliers of vaccines will not supply vaccines to South Africa unless the contractual arrangements with government include an indemnification that the particular pharmaceutical company will not be liable to compensate for any “serious adverse events” arising from the use of the vaccine.
At the moment one of the major problems impacting the roll-out of the vaccines is Treasury’s reluctance to override the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act to allow for the inclusion of such indemnities in contracts with the suppliers. It has been reported that Treasury Director General Dondo Mogajane has complained about these onerous clauses and that the pharmaceutical companies are “holding a gun to our heads”. This of course ignores the fact that the pharmaceutical companies have captive vaccine markets all over the world and there is nothing compelling them to supply vaccines to South Africa.
From a publicity point of view, the problem now is that very few people know of the indemnities which will operate in favour of the pharmaceutical companies and there is absolutely no assurance yet of what compensation, if any, will be available in the event of harmful (although rare) side effects developing as a result of any of the COVID-19 vaccines. This is simply no way to ensure the confidence of our citizens in regard to the roll-out of the vaccines and in particular where there is talk of employers being entitled to force employees to take the vaccine.
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