Covid taught us scientists should be in charge next time: Madhi

For Shabir Madhi, head of health sciences at Wits, the past two years and three months have been a journey he is unlikely to forget.

As a world-class vaccinologist, a deadly global pandemic made the clarion call of his life’s work even louder — first from within the ministerial advisory committee on the pandemic and then from outside it after he and others were pushed out.

After his departure from the committee, Madhi set out to keep the public informed on the pandemic, breaking down complex information into easy-to-understand sound bites.

From podcasts and radio interviews to television appearances and newspaper interviews, Madhi answered countless questions as SA found itself in unknown territory.

This week, as the final pandemic regulations were lifted, Madhi said Covid had delivered an “exacerbation of imbalance between work and social and family time” and was a source of professional tension.

“Some of the scientific spats with other scientists and at times politicians could have been avoided had there been greater open-mindedness rather than stubbornness of pursuing and adhering to regulations which, as has transpired, failed,” he said, adding that he will always blame the government for the loss of an additional 20,000 lives after its decision to sell 1-million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

He said a major lesson for future pandemics is “the need to engage transparently with scientists who have the appropriate training and skills set”.

Many scientists believe Covid is one of several pandemics that could sweep the world, often caused by zoonotic diseases as human beings have destroyed the habitats of so animals and created unnatural interactions in “wet” markets and other settings.

In future, said Madhi, the insights of scientists should not be filtered and diluted by treating them as “advisers”.

He wants an independent scientific advisory group to be established to inform policy and boost public confidence in government decisions.

Other lessons are mainly applicable to future pandemics where a pathogen is spread through the air.

“The major experience is to understand the context when attempting risk mitigation and to be balanced in the approach rather than being aspirational when knowing that the material conditions on the ground and available resources differ by setting,” he said.

He said after the final regulations were dropped by the cabinet the protocols had “achieved very little in preventing the spread of the virus” — evidenced by the fact that 90% of South Africans got infected, “and often multiple times”.

He emphasised that protocols and mitigation strategies should differ vastly based on the pathogen. For example, monkeypox — SA had its first case this week — requires “a totally different approach” to Covid.