The SA Medical Association , which represents doctors, says there must be a choice of Covid-19 booster vaccine, after Johnson & Johnson won the right to run research on the 500,000 health workers who received the company’s shot in an initial study.
Sama said it was concerned because of potential evidence that a booster in the form of a messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, vaccine such as those produced by Pfizer was potentially more effective than a second dose of a more traditional vector-based shot, such as that produced by J&J. The rollout of the booster trial will begin on Wednesday and the addition of a choice would delay it by six weeks, said Nicholas Crisp, deputy director-general of the department of health. That would mean health workers would not get more protection before the start of a possible fourth wave of coronavirus infections, he said, adding that a Pfizer booster trial may be carried out later.