For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: South Africa doctors oppose J&J boost as sole health worker choice, ANC moves to nominate mayoral candidates, even as coalition talks hang in balance and, Guinea starts vaccinating children against Covid-19 with Pfizer and Moderna

South Africa doctors oppose J&J boost as sole health worker choice,
The South African Medical Association, which represents doctors, said there must be a choice of Covid-19 booster vaccine after Johnson & Johnson won the right to run research on the half a million health workers who took the company’s shot in an initial study.

The Sisonke trial, which gave South African health workers a vaccine ahead of a general rollout of the shots, will be extended with health workers offered a second J&J inoculation, the government said last month.

The association said it is concerned because of potential evidence that a booster vaccine such as those produced by Pfizer Inc. is potentially more effective than a second dose of a more traditional vector-based shot, such as that produced by J&J.

ANC moves to nominate mayoral candidates, even as coalition talks hang in balance

Despite coalition talks hanging in the balance, the ANC has moved to nominate mayoral candidates across the country, with the party planning on conducting interviews on Saturday.

Regional leaders of the ANC were asked to forward three names to be considered for the mayoral chain in municipalities across the country.

The nominees would then face an interview panel of ANC national executive committee members.

Party insiders said ANC processes could not be held back because the party did not have clarity on talks related to the 66 hung councils.

Guinea starts vaccinating children against Covid-19 with Pfizer and Moderna

Guinea will begin vaccinating children aged 12 to 17 against Covid-19 with a consignment of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines today.

Most African countries have been reliant on the COVAX vaccine sharing initiative for doses, and have inoculated only a small fraction of their populations.

Guinea received a quantity of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in late October and early November.

The country previously received 194 400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the global COVAX initiative, and supplemented that with vaccines purchased and donated from China.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today
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