The omens augured well when the first big vaccine delivery arrived. Heavy rain, always a sign of good fortune in South Africa, fell as a masked President Ramaphosa stood on sodden tarmac to welcome the first tranche of a million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Within days of the delivery in February, however, the rollout was in chaos. Results of a trial among younger patients suggested that the vaccine did not work against variants of the virus prevalent in South Africa. Confidence in the Oxford vaccine plummeted, and the entire consignment was either thrown away or donated.
Today South Africa has reason to rue its extreme caution. It is battling a third wave of cases while its public vaccination programme has yet to get under way. A
