Time for a Boost

As changes to the vaccine policy are announced we unpack what you need to know

- By Nasifa Sulaiman

5 march 2020: the day the minister of health announced the inevitable: Covid-19 had arrived in South Africa.

And just like that, life as we knew it changed. Lockdowns, booze bans, PPE, death, disease, joblessness, remote working, PCR tests, isolation - all this and more became part of our lexicon as we navigated a strange new normal.

Yet it feels like every few weeks there's a new study or a new review and we have to rethink what we know and what we've been doing. The latest related to mixing and matching vaccines is no different.

Much has changed in two years and much of the change is thanks to the development of vaccines.

The life-saving jabs have helped temper the ferocity of the virus and enabled us to find a way of living with the disease.

But things continue to develop as experts delve deeper into the science and this became obvious once again when changes to the booster policy were announced.

You can mix and match vaccines now and the time you have to wait before you're eligible for your booster has been reduced. As has so often happened during the pandemic, there's some uncertainty and confusion. We unpack what the new decision means.

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING NOW

The government says the changes were made based on recommendations by scientists who are constantly studying the evidence.

However, there are concerns the decision was made because of the risk of vaccines in SA expiring.