25/02/21 COVID-19: global vaccine promises ring hollow
Vaccination campaign for COVID-19 in Santiago, Chile. Copyright: Municipality of Santiago / Flickr , (Creative Commons 2.0 license)
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Infrastructure limitations and overestimation of capacity are some of the causes
To get equal access to vaccines, specialists say that international cooperation is key
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International cooperation is key to get equal access to COVID-19 vaccines
Almost 130 countries are yet to receive a single COVID-19 vaccine dose, as ten high-income countries secure the majority.
This week, the first COVID-19 vaccine doses from the United Nations-led COVAX initiative arrived in Africa. This is a long-awaited piece of good news in a climate where vaccine procurement for developing countries has been hampered by empty promises, delays, infrastructure challenges and prejudice.
While many richer countries have begun vaccinating their populations in earnest, the world’s poorest have been left behind in the global vaccines arms race. This disparity was highlighted by Henrietta Fore, executive director of Unicef, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, in a joint statement.
As Ghana becomes the first country to receive vaccines from the UN-led COVAX scheme, the West has been warned that a post-COVID economic recovery is dependent on vaccinating the developing world.
The head of the World Health Organization, or WHO, has called on richer countries not to undermine the United Nations-led COVAX program, which supports a global equitable sharing of COVID-19 vaccines, and to ensure poorer countries do not miss out on available doses.