Protect our healthcare workers before the 4th wave!

Frontline healthcare workers have served us all unconditionally in 3 successive waves of infection. They have witnessed unprecedented suffering and death and are now exhausted, with many experiencing compassion fatigue and burnout.

During the 3rd trough and pending 4th wave they will continue to be exposed to potentially infectious cases of Covid-19 daily and also work with vulnerable populations at risk of dying from Covid-19.

They deserve better.

As a healthcare community, we are collectively responsible for protecting our health care workers and the vulnerable populations they work with.

1. We call for all health care facilities and medical campuses to require all their employees and students to be vaccinated against COVID-19. We stand with the growing number of scientific experts and institutions in South Africa and internationally in support of universal vaccination of health care workers.

The South African Committee of Medical Deans (SACOMD) and the South African Committee of Dental Deans (SACODD) have recommended compulsory Covid-19 vaccination for all healthcare workers and health sciences students, stating that it is a ‘moral imperative’ to do so.

While we recognize that some healthcare workers cannot be vaccinated because of identified medical reasons and should be exempted from a mandate, they are a very small minority.

Existing COVID-19 vaccine mandates in other countries have shown promise. However, mandatory vaccination should not occur in a vacuum. We recognize that there is historical mistrust in institutions of authority, medicine and science, even among healthcare workers. It is therefore essential that we also embark on meaningful engagement with employees and students to address their concerns, clearly communicate the evidence, and build trust to improve voluntary vaccine acceptance.

2. We ask that all healthcare workers be provided with appropriate vaccine boosters now. This could be a booster dose of the J&J vaccine, which has been shown 6 months after vaccination to increase antibody levels 9-fold, or alternatively a heterologous prime-booster with a messenger RNA vaccine, such as the Pfizer vaccine.

Large numbers of health care workers became ill in the 1st and 2nd waves and more than 1300 healthcare workers in South Africa have died due to Covid-19 since the first wave.

During the 2nd trough 478 452 healthcare workers took the single dose J & J vaccine as research participants in the Sisonke trial. The mitigating impact of vaccination on healthcare worker infections and deaths during the peak of the 3rd wave was striking and provided real life proof of the efficacy of these vaccines in preventing infection, severe disease and death.

Unfortunately, infections in vaccinated healthcare workers are starting to rise again. These ‘breakthrough infections’ occur due to the widely recognised waning of immunity after only one shot of the J&J vaccine.

Although most breakthrough infections are not severe, they have a meaningful impact on our ability as healthcare workers to continue working and they unnecessarily expose our patients and colleagues to Covid-19.

While we stand firm that the urgent priority is to ensure that all South Africans are vaccinated, we cannot allow fully vaccinated health care workers to have waning protection. President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated in his speech to the nation on 12th September that there are sufficient vaccines for the entire adult population.

Please sign this petition if you believe that we need to do everything in our power to protect healthcare workers and their vulnerable patients in preparation for an inevitable 4th wave.

Petition starters: Soraya Seedat, Keymanthri Moodley, Jantjie Taljaard, Helmuth Reuter, Therese Fish, Jimmy Volmink