A man receives his vaccine at a vaccination site. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)
Pretoria - Three organisations that claim that the Covid-19 vaccine is harmful to people have turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, in an urgent bid to stop the government from administering further jabs.
The three non-profit organisations – Covid Care Alliance, Transformative Health Justice, and Free the Children-Save the Nation – are asking, among others, for an order interdicting the government from urging South Africans to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and from distributing vaccines to vaccination centres.
They are asking that this order remain in place pending a further application in which they are asking that health officials be ordered to test the medical and scientific efficacy and safety of the vaccines.
The applicants also want the government to look into the medical conditions of those who have displayed medical complications or have died after being vaccinated.
Stephanus Oosthuizen, a medical doctor who has a practice in Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal, said in an affidavit that since the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa, he noticed that he was receiving patients with medical conditions that he could not quite relate to as a medical doctor.
“I noticed that the conditions being presented were similar to those being recorded and reported on by other doctors, which they ascribed to Covid-19 vaccine injuries,” he said in his statement.
Oosthuizen said he has reported to the Department of Health for further investigation at least 125 cases of adverse effects recorded at his practice.
According to him, the conditions seen are likely related to and caused by the Covid-19 vaccines.
“What we are witnessing in South Africa seems to be comparative to what is reported of happening in other countries, in as far as the adverse events being witnessed among the jabbed,” he said in court documents.
Oosthuizen submitted that it is a matter of life and death that vaccination should be halted, pending further tests regarding the safety of vaccines.
Riekie Erasmus, lawyer acting for the applicants, said although the matter was on the urgent court roll this week, Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba will allocate a judge to hear the matter as a special motion.
Neither of the government departments stated as respondents have yet filed their opposing affidavits, but it is expected to be done soon.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), however, made it clear from the start that as an independent health products regulatory authority, its mandate is to ensure the safety, quality and efficacy of health products available in South Africa. These essential requirements have been similarly applied to all Covid-19 vaccines considered for use in the country, it said.
Pretoria News