The Sisonke Johnson & Johnson trial has denied that the implementation study has been expanded to cover the general public in order to save vaccines from expiring.

The study, which started in February, aims to vaccinate 500 000 healthcare workers against Covid-19 and is expected to end this weekend.

Next week, the national vaccine rollout is expected to start, targeting people aged 60 and above.

On Wednesday, social media user @TheCapeTownGuy tweeted that he was vaccinated in the Western Cape, despite not working in the healthcare industry.

In a series of tweets, he claimed that nurses told him and other patients that they needed to vaccinate as many people as possible before the J&J vaccines expire.

The co-principal investigator of the Sisonke trial, Professor Glenda Gray, said it was untrue that the vaccines were expiring.

"They expire in one year. We want this Sisonke vaccine to be finished by the end of the week, so that government can do its rollout. We don't want to confuse the public."

She said the programme is only open to people who work in the healthcare system - even if they are not patient-facing or work in the non-governmental sector.

"He was naughty. He probably lied. When you go onto the website and register, you have to say, 'I am a healthcare worker'. There's no way to join Sisonke if you are not in the healthcare sector. So this guy must have lied."

The man claims he waited for four hours to get vaccinated.

He also shared a link to the registration site he used to get vaccinated.

News24 tried registering by using the link. It required users to choose whether they are healthcare workers or not. Even if a user said "no", they were still required to enter the details regarding which healthcare facilities they work at.

Otherwise, the user would be unable to complete registration.

The link also specifies that by completing the form, the user confirms they are a healthcare worker and can provide identity documentation and healthcare worker proof of employment at the time of vaccination.

"There are people who are going to jump the queue and be liars. They are few and far between, and some of them will slip through [the system]," Gray said.

News24 asked the man, who also posted on YouTube a video of him receiving the vaccine, for comment.

He said: "I actually prefer not to engage on this any further as it's their word against mine."

Western Cape health spokesperson, Mark van der Heever, also said the Sisonke team had sent out a communiqué on 9 May to say their sites were open to "all health workers and health personnel, including, among others, non-patient-facing health workers, such as support and administrative staff, as well as health research staff".

Van der Heever said they were unaware of vaccination taking place at Mitchells Plain Hospital.

National health spokesperson, Popo Maja, was unavailable for comment when News24 contacted him with questions on what measures were in place to prevent people from bypassing the online registration process and systems.

Everyone should have access to vaccine

Poet Lebogang Mashile also faced criticism after sharing on social media that she was vaccinated. She qualified because she does communications work for African Alliance, a health NGO.

Speaking on behalf of Mashile, Tian Johnson, from African Alliance, said: "She qualified under the broad definition of the healthcare worker. This is why we have been pushing since last week that, if you are a gardener, a clerk, bookkeeper, get vaccinated now."

He said Mashile had been helping the organisation with its communication strategy for over 18 months.

"Everyone should have access to the vaccine. We need to continue to advocate the government to rollout vaccines for everyone. It's outrageous that we all don't have access to the vaccine. In this instance, Lebo did nothing wrong."

Johnson said it was also important to use well-known figures, like Mashile, to encourage the public to curb vaccine hesitancy.

"Even if 95% of people say we want the vaccine, it means nothing. We are never getting out of the pandemic, so we have to tackle vaccine hesitancy.

"If I had the budget, I would have taken Bonang, Minnie Dlamini and Coconut Kelz to get vaccinated. Our priority is ensuring that South Africans look at their TV screens and see that vaccines are safe, they work, and we have confidence in them."