Cape Town - The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation has expressed its support for Covid-19 vaccines following Archbishop Tutu's pledge to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as soon as one became available to him.
The foundation called on South Africans to follow the Archbishop’s lead once a safe, efficacious and approved vaccine is made available to all.
The foundation’s chief executive, Piyushi Kotecha, said they were encouraged by the Archbishop’s public pledge and called on other public figures to make similar pledges.
“Governments are seeking to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission presently wreaking havoc worldwide through vaccination roll-out strategies and plans. Vaccinations have ignited hope for lives and livelihoods,” said Kotecha.
In his pledge, Archbishop Tutu said he was joining many other world leaders in pledging to have a vaccination against Covid-19.
“Vaccines have eradicated terrible diseases such as smallpox, and we are close to using them to make others, such as polio and measles, history. Yet many people are scared or wary of this simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against infectious diseases before they even come into contact with them.There is nothing to fear,” he said.
Tutu said the more people who were vaccinated against Covid-19, the more everyone was protected against the disease.
“Vaccinated people are protected from getting the disease against which they have been inoculated and from passing it on. This breaks the chain of transmission, but to do that properly, the majority of people in a community need to be vaccinated. This is what is known as ’herd immunity’.
“The percentage of a population that needs to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity differs from disease to disease.We do not yet know what the percentage for Covid-19 is, but we do know this: the more of us who have the vaccine, the better for all of us.
“I am pledging to have a Covid-19 vaccine, because I already know what it is to lose years of your life to a disease. I also know what it is to worry that I have passed a preventable disease on to people I love. I ask you to do the same,” he said.
Cape Argus