Ower read a section of Spurrier’s email to the court, in which the chief health officer claimed there was “sound scientific evidence that a booster or third dose markedly increases vaccine effectiveness against Omicron, therefore, the third dose booster is recommended to increase protection”.
“It could be the case that it increases vaccine effectiveness against the severity of symptoms, but for example, does not increase vaccine effectiveness against onwards transmission,” Ower said.
Stevens said he agreed there was “ambiguity” in the email, but reiterated he had “ongoing conversations” with Spurrier about the impact of the vaccine.
Ower also asked Stevens whether a decision to alter vaccine mandates for police officers could have also been applied to healthcare workers.
Stevens said he was comfortable making the decision given the high vaccination rate among SA Police workers.
It comes after Spurrier was earlier this month forced to run a gauntlet of anti-vaccination protestors outside court after Varnhangen’s legal team subpoenaed her to appear before the trial.
Before appearing in court this morning, Stevens told FiveAA the scenes that greeted Spurrier were “completely disgraceful”.
“Unfortunately, there are people out there who have divergent views,” he said.
“We certainly respect people’s right to hold different views, but there’s a way to behave and what we saw with the conduct of that crowd when Professor Spurrier was going to and xjmtzywfrom court was completely disgraceful.
