The Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at CUT hosted a Prestige Research Day themed: “Together for fair, healthy, and accessible COVID-19 vaccines”. With this virtual event, the faculty celebrated its successes during 2021 despite the challenges. They have made substantial contributions in response to COVID-19 and the fulfilment of other governmental requirements, especially those aimed at alleviating poverty and positioning South Africa as a competitive economy.

The Prestige Research Day offered CUT an opportunity to showcase the faculty’s outstanding research endeavours. It continued to trailblaze during the pandemic by publishing in high-impact factor journals and producing innovations in response to the challenges of our region and country.

CUT acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Prof. Samson Mashele highlighted the importance of positioning CUT as a benchmark University of Technology in research, innovation, and technology.

“It’s very difficult to talk about higher education, without touching on innovation. We are innovating, not only because we want to be ahead of the pack, but because we want to be relevant. UoT’s have got the mandate to really operate in that space of innovation. At the moment in the country, we are a resource-based economy, and we need to move away from that and become a knowledge-based economy. Universities have become the raw materials of economic development,” said Prof. Mashele.

When she delivered her keynote address, Dr Hellen Motloung took the audience through the province’s vaccination statistics, highlighting that the speed at which the vaccination was developed. Currently, she is the Provincial Covid-19 Vaccine Coordinator in Free State Province for vaccine rollout and holds an MBChB and a MMed Community Health/FCPHM specialist degree in Public Health Medicine from the University of Free State. She is also part of the Provincial COVID-19 Surveillance Team, offering technical support to the province.  

“We must keep in mind that SARS CoV surfaced in 2002, MERS followed in 2012, and by the time we had SARS CoV 2, scientists had already been working on it for a while to ensure that a vaccine is developed. Vaccines for diseases such as measles and chickenpox have made such a difference in our children’s lives. Smallpox was eradicated because of vaccinations, so perhaps these Covid-vaccines can also help us,” she said.

Dr Nicholas Pearce, Head of General Surgery at the University of the Free State as well as in the Free State Department of Health, touched on the manner in which the Province had responded to the outbreak of the Covid-19 from its inception in 2020.  

“I think we are moving from a pandemic into an endemic where Covid will probably continue be around, the idea is to try and contain the outbreaks. We are seeing a lot of patients being admitted that have been infected multiple times, they are on their second or third edition. From our studies here at Universitas, we have yet to lose a patient that is fully vaccinated,” said Dr Pearce, while answering a question relating to herd immunity.

He has been instrumental in setting up multiple field and surge facilities throughout the province, as well as several vaccination sites. Dr Pearce has also been involved in multiple studies on Covid-19 over the past year, is currently serving as a provincial task team member for Covid-19 and is also the Universitas Covid-19 Task Team Chair.

Caption

Dr Hellen Motloung; Dr Nicholas Pearce and CUT acting DVC: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Prof. Samson Mashele at the virtual Prestige Research Day hosted by the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences.