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- The Covid-19 appeals committee hearings into Covid-19 vaccines in children started on Friday.
- The hearings are meant to determine whether SAHPRA's decision to allow the vaccination of children was lawful.
- The hearings were postponed to May.
The Covid-19 appeals committee hearings into Covid-19 vaccines in children could not go ahead as the parties fought over the health regulator's decision to refuse to provide documents used to approve Pfizer.
On Friday during the first day of hearings, legal representatives of the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and Free the Children - Save the Nation argued over the regulator's decision not to share documents from Pfizer.
The documents were used to allow the vaccines to be administered to children.
Last July, SAHPRA authorised a paediatric Covid-19 trial on children aged six months to eight years for the Sinovac vaccine. In September, it approved the Pfizer vaccine to be administered to children aged 12 and above.
Free the Children - Save the Nation launched an appeal against both decisions last October.
Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla appointed advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi to chair the committee.
Free the Children - Save the Nation recommended Dr Herman Edeling and Dr Stephen Schmidt to be on the committee, while SAHPRA recommended Professor Glenda Gray and Professor Salim Abdool Karim.
The committee will determine whether SAHPRA acted lawfully in making its decisions on the trials and administering vaccines to minors.
The committee had the power to overturn the decision and ask for a fresh one or dismiss the appeal, Ngcukaitobi said.
On Friday, SAHPRA's lawyer, advocate David Mtshweni, informed Ngcukaitobi he would be seeking a postponement because he had only been assigned the case on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier in the week, Ngcukaitobi ruled SAHPRA should give Free the Children - Save the Nation documents it used to allow Pfizer to be administered to children.
READ | Children aged 12 and older can now get Covid-19 vaccine jab, health department says
SAHPRA maintained the documents were confidential and Free the Children - Save the Nation should get them from Pfizer.
On Thursday, SAHPRA sent Ngcukaitobi a letter saying it would take his decision to allow the media at the hearings and hand over the Pfizer documents on review at the High Court. The letter was withdrawn on Friday.
"These hearings involve a very important subject matter that is currently going on in the country that being coronavirus. It also puts in the spotlight SAHPRA's mandate as the regulator of medicines…
Mtshweni said:
He argued both parties were not ready to proceed with the hearings, and if not postponed, it would diminish the public's trust in the regulator.
Free the Children - Save the Nation's lawyer, advocate Reg Willis, was against the postponement, arguing SAHPRA had ample time to prepare for the hearings.
Willis said: "This approach is duplicitous. They cannot justify their decision [to seek a postponement] to you. They are abusing the process of appeal. They are not committed to this appeal… They want to scupper these proceedings."
He added he would call at least 10 witnesses, including US-based medical doctor Peter McCullough and UK-based pathologist Dr Clare Craig.
The hearings will now take place from 31 May to 3 June.
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