LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday he will take the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca after a number of European countries halted their rollout of the jab over safety fears.
Johnson dismissed questions in parliament about why several countries had suspended use of the product developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company with scientists at Oxford University.
But he told lawmakers: “I finally got news and I’ve got to have my own jab, very shortly, I’m pleased to discover.
“It will certainly be Oxford AstraZeneca, that I will be having.”
Johnson, 56, is among the next category of people being called for vaccination. The government hopes to have offered it to all adults by July.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that timeline remains on track, despite the National Health Service in England warning in a letter to administrators that vaccine supplies will be “significantly constrained” from March 29 for up to a month.
“Vaccine supply is always lumpy and we regularly send out technical letters to the NHS to explain the ups and downs of the supply over the future weeks,” Hancock told a news conference, insisting the letter was “standard” practice.
Britain has now given more than 25 million people a first dose of a Covid vaccine — including 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab — after starting a mass inoculation program in December last year.
It is also using a jab developed by Pfizer/BioNTech in its rollout program but recipients do not normally get a choice of vaccines.
Johnson wrote in the Times newspaper that the AstraZeneca vaccine “is safe and works extremely well.” Hancock and England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam echoed that assurance at the press conference.
European countries including France, Spain and Germany are among those who have halted using the jab pending a review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) amid feared links to blood clots and brain haemorrhages.
Queen Elizabeth II’s oldest son and heir, Prince Charles, on Wednesday criticized opposition to coronavirus vaccines.
“Who would have thought, for instance, that in the 21st century that there would be a significant lobby opposing vaccination, given its track record in eradicating so many terrible diseases,” he said in an article in the Future Healthcare Journal.
Charles, who has been vocal in advocating the rollout of the vaccine among more reluctant minority communities in Britain, added that the jab had the “potential to protect and liberate some of the most vulnerable in our society from coronavirus.”
The 72-year-old Prince of Wales tested positive for coronavirus last year and suffered mild symptoms. He had his first dose of a vaccine in February.
His wife, Camilla, 73, confirmed on Tuesday she had been given the AstraZeneca shot.
“You take what you are given,” she said as the couple visited a vaccination center at a north London mosque, adding that she had suffered no ill-effects.
Professor Jeremy Brown, from the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), said suspension of the AstraZeneca jab was “not logical.”
“There is the concern that what’s happening in Europe might make people in the UK less confident in the AstraZeneca vaccine,” he told broadcaster ITV.
The EMA, the World Health Organization and Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have all backed the AstraZeneca jab.
France and Italy have said they will “promptly restart” giving the jab if the EMA review allows it.
As Britain has surged ahead with its vaccination program, European countries have been accused of playing politics to distract from their sluggish inoculation rollouts.
European leaders were angered in January after AstraZeneca announced it was unable to deliver the agreed numbers of jabs to the bloc.
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UK’s Johnson says he will have AztraZeneca jab, dismisses safety fears
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UK’s Johnson says he will have AztraZeneca jab, dismisses safety fears
- Johnson, 56, is among the next category of people being called for vaccination
Soldiers on the streets. What’s behind South Africa’s plan to deploy army in high-crime areas
JOHANNESBURG: It’s an unusual move for the African continent’s leading democracy: South Africa’s president announced earlier this month that he will deploy the army to high-crime areas to fight the scourge of organized crime, gang violence and illegal mining.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said soldiers would take to the streets — in places that have some of the world’s highest rates of violent crime — to combat what he described as the “most immediate threat” to South Africa’s democracy and economic development.
He said the deployment would happen in three of the country’s nine provinces, without giving a timeline. Some critics, however, say the army deployment could be seen as an admission that Ramaphosa’s government is losing the battle.
A top tourist city marred by violence
With a population of some 3.8 million, the stunningly beautiful Cape Town is South Africa’s second-largest city and one of its top tourist attractions.
But the neighborhoods on its outskirts, known as the Cape Flats, are notorious for deadly gang violence.
Street gangs with names such as the Americans, the Hard Livings and the Terrible Josters have for years battled for control of the illegal drug trade, while also being involved in extortion rackets, prostitution and contract killings.
Bystanders, including children, are often caught in the crossfire and killed in gang-related shootings. According to the latest crime statistics, South Africa’s three police precincts with the most serious crime rates are all in and around Cape Town.
Ramaphosa said one part of the army would deploy in the Western Cape province, where Cape Town is located and which statistics say has around 90 percent of the country’s gang-related killings.
Two other provinces, he said, would also see troop deployments: Gauteng, which is home to Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city, and the Eastern Cape province.
Illegal mining run by organized crime syndicates
The outskirts of Johannesburg and the wider Gauteng province are dotted with abandoned mine shafts and authorities there have long grappled with illegal gold mining.
They say the mining gang, known as zama zamas, are typically run by heavily armed crime syndicates, brutal in protecting their operations. They use “informal miners” recruited from desperate and impoverished communities to go into the shafts, searching for leftover precious deposits.
These gangs are often connected to high-profile violence, including a 2022 case that shocked South Africa when around 80 alleged illegal miners were accused of gang raping eight women who were part of a music video shoot at an abandoned mine.
Last year, a standoff between police and illegal miners in an abandoned mine left at least 87 miners dead after police took a hard-line approach and cut off their food supplies in an attempt to force them out.
The illegal miners are often involved in other crimes in nearby communities, analysts say, and turf battles between rival gangs have forced people to leave their homes and seek safety elsewhere.
Authorities say there are an estimated 30,000 illegal miners in South Africa, operating in some of its 6,000 abandoned mine shafts.
The government has noted an increase in illegal mining, which it estimates is worth more than $4 billion a year in gold lost to criminal syndicates.
The trade is believed to be predominantly controlled by migrants from neighboring Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, stoking anger among South African communities against both the criminal bosses and foreigners living in the local community.
Previous army deployments linked to apartheid
Ramaphosa is well aware that South Africans old enough to remember the years of forced racial segregation under the apartheid system, which ended in 1994, likely will recall images of troops deployed to suppress pro-democracy protests.
Mindful of that painful past, he said it was important not to deploy the army “without a good reason.”
But he said it has now “become necessary due to a surge in violent organized crime that threatens the safety of our people and the authority of the state.”
Ramaphosa sought to calm concerns by saying the army would operate under police command.
There have been other recent deployments of South African troops. In 2023, soldiers fanned out into the streets after a series of truck burnings raised concerns over wider public disorder. And around 25,000 troops were deployed in 2021 to quell violent riots sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.
South Africa also used soldiers to enforce strict lockdown rules during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Crime experts have expressed concern over Ramaphosa’s latest deployment plans, insisting the army is not a long-term solution to fighting crime and soldiers are not experts in domestic law enforcement.
Firoz Cachalia, the country’s police minister, has backed Ramaphosa and insisted the army will act in support of police and “their operations in particular locations.”
He said the deployment is time-limited and meant to stabilize areas “where people are losing their lives” every day.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said soldiers would take to the streets — in places that have some of the world’s highest rates of violent crime — to combat what he described as the “most immediate threat” to South Africa’s democracy and economic development.
He said the deployment would happen in three of the country’s nine provinces, without giving a timeline. Some critics, however, say the army deployment could be seen as an admission that Ramaphosa’s government is losing the battle.
A top tourist city marred by violence
With a population of some 3.8 million, the stunningly beautiful Cape Town is South Africa’s second-largest city and one of its top tourist attractions.
But the neighborhoods on its outskirts, known as the Cape Flats, are notorious for deadly gang violence.
Street gangs with names such as the Americans, the Hard Livings and the Terrible Josters have for years battled for control of the illegal drug trade, while also being involved in extortion rackets, prostitution and contract killings.
Bystanders, including children, are often caught in the crossfire and killed in gang-related shootings. According to the latest crime statistics, South Africa’s three police precincts with the most serious crime rates are all in and around Cape Town.
Ramaphosa said one part of the army would deploy in the Western Cape province, where Cape Town is located and which statistics say has around 90 percent of the country’s gang-related killings.
Two other provinces, he said, would also see troop deployments: Gauteng, which is home to Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city, and the Eastern Cape province.
Illegal mining run by organized crime syndicates
The outskirts of Johannesburg and the wider Gauteng province are dotted with abandoned mine shafts and authorities there have long grappled with illegal gold mining.
They say the mining gang, known as zama zamas, are typically run by heavily armed crime syndicates, brutal in protecting their operations. They use “informal miners” recruited from desperate and impoverished communities to go into the shafts, searching for leftover precious deposits.
These gangs are often connected to high-profile violence, including a 2022 case that shocked South Africa when around 80 alleged illegal miners were accused of gang raping eight women who were part of a music video shoot at an abandoned mine.
Last year, a standoff between police and illegal miners in an abandoned mine left at least 87 miners dead after police took a hard-line approach and cut off their food supplies in an attempt to force them out.
The illegal miners are often involved in other crimes in nearby communities, analysts say, and turf battles between rival gangs have forced people to leave their homes and seek safety elsewhere.
Authorities say there are an estimated 30,000 illegal miners in South Africa, operating in some of its 6,000 abandoned mine shafts.
The government has noted an increase in illegal mining, which it estimates is worth more than $4 billion a year in gold lost to criminal syndicates.
The trade is believed to be predominantly controlled by migrants from neighboring Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, stoking anger among South African communities against both the criminal bosses and foreigners living in the local community.
Previous army deployments linked to apartheid
Ramaphosa is well aware that South Africans old enough to remember the years of forced racial segregation under the apartheid system, which ended in 1994, likely will recall images of troops deployed to suppress pro-democracy protests.
Mindful of that painful past, he said it was important not to deploy the army “without a good reason.”
But he said it has now “become necessary due to a surge in violent organized crime that threatens the safety of our people and the authority of the state.”
Ramaphosa sought to calm concerns by saying the army would operate under police command.
There have been other recent deployments of South African troops. In 2023, soldiers fanned out into the streets after a series of truck burnings raised concerns over wider public disorder. And around 25,000 troops were deployed in 2021 to quell violent riots sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.
South Africa also used soldiers to enforce strict lockdown rules during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Crime experts have expressed concern over Ramaphosa’s latest deployment plans, insisting the army is not a long-term solution to fighting crime and soldiers are not experts in domestic law enforcement.
Firoz Cachalia, the country’s police minister, has backed Ramaphosa and insisted the army will act in support of police and “their operations in particular locations.”
He said the deployment is time-limited and meant to stabilize areas “where people are losing their lives” every day.
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