Health bodies to discuss heart doctor’s controversial remarks on vaccination

Cape Town - The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) said it will engage with the country’s medical professions watchdog the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), over controversial anti-Covid-19 vaccination statements made by Dr Susan Vosloo.

Vosloo was the country's first female heart surgeon, completing her first heart transplant at the age of 33.

She came under fire from health-care workers and experts at the weekend for expressing at a BitChute meeting that there were a range of “risks” in getting vaccinated; that alternative medications were being suppressed and discredited and that big manufacturing companies have “seriously bad track records”.

“The composition of the vaccine is largely confidential. It’s like a trade secret, it’s not possible to share it with anyone, like the spice mixture of Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Vosloo said.

“But this is a treatment, it’s invasive for any person receiving it. The big companies have seriously bad track records and Moderna has never previously manufactured any drugs for medical use.

“The new technology that is used by these vaccines also has risks that nobody has ever confirmed or shown or excluded.

“The messenger mRNA that’s injected, is programmed to stimulate one's own cells to make what they call the spike protein – the spike protein is something we have learnt about over the last year, and that is really the damaging part of the natural or unnatural disease.

“The damage is done at a microvascular level and there is no off switch for this.

“I think it’s important for people that are not familiar with this to know that this is not FDA approved; there is only emergency use authorisation.

“Each participant that gets this treatment becomes part of a big trial. There is absolutely no safety data.

“I think practically all the people I know, if they get sick, the first question I ask is when did you get the vaccine? And a 100% of my friends that had it have been sick with varying degrees of symptoms.

“The known adverse events include death. There are severe neurological complications with paralysis and Bell's palsy.

“The thromboembolic events result as a result of the damage that's done to the vascular at a microscopic level, and there are some gynaecological complaints – the worst of which is the potential of infertility in future,” Vosloo said.

Attempts to get comment from Vosloo were unsuccessful on Sunday.

Sahpra chief executive Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela said they worked closely with the HPCSA and would engage with them to assess Vosloo’s statements.

“The public needs to get the right information, and we do get worried when information is not corroborated,” Semete-Makokotlela said.

The SA Medical Association (Sama) said it is dismayed at reports that some healthcare workers – including doctors – have discouraged patients from getting Covid-19 vaccinations based on doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness.

Sama chairperson Dr Angelique Coetzee said the medical fraternity must be united in its commitment to ensure wider access to the vaccines.

“We wholly reject any doubts about the Covid-19 vaccines. There is high confidence among the scientific and medical community about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines being rolled out in South Africa, and they have also undergone safety and efficacy tests by the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority.

“Vaccine hesitancy, however, should be condemned, and so should those who fuel it, particularly doctors who should know better,” Coetzee said.

The HSPCA did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

Cape Times