JOHANNESBURG - World-renowned vaccinologist Shabir Madhi has been awarded a CBE by Britain’s King Charles the Third.
He is being given one of the UK's highest honours for his contributions to science.
Madhi led Africa's first Covid-19 vaccine trials in 2020 and 2021.
He has also been an outspoken advocate of vaccinations and for increased access to vaccines in Africa.
His team was the first to recognise the original jabs weren’t going to work for the subsequent variants.
Prof Madhi said, "well I think it’s important, from a personal level, while it is an honour to be conferred a title, but I think it is a recognition of the tremendous effort which others in South Africa made during the pandemic."
"It also indicates that as South African scientists we are highly regarded we compete with the best despite lack of resources."
"We were the 1st globally to show that the vaccines that were being developed with the original virus, wasn’t going to work too well in preventing infections due to subsequent variants."
"Many were highly dismissive of the positioning we were taking along with colleagues from Cambridge University."