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Universally, there’s the belief that the availability of a Covid-19 vaccine will break the spell of suffering and we can finally rid ourselves of our masks. But the last mile from ‘vaccine’ to ‘vaccination’ must be trekked before our world can truly start to become safe, and that journey is fraught with challenges.
Some of these problems, though complex, are well-defined – like connecting the dots between vaccine providers, distributors and consumers, nurturing a cold supply chain framework or even streamlining the broad spectrum of vaccine management from prioritization and administration, all the way to adverse effect monitoring. In fact, we recently announced a software solution that does exactly that. Then again, not all problems, in this context, are as well-framed.
OPINION: I love a harbour. Tomorrow night the old wharfs of Auckland, Wellington and even across in Sydney will be packed with people, jollier than jolly, celebrating the last week before Christmas. They’ll be office-types, who started trickling out around midday for lunch meetings that never stopped, but the ale will no doubt taste just as good for the boaties arriving in Picton or the crafty folk at Oamaru’s Scotts Brewing. We’ve got a lot to celebrate down here, with a stellar summer ahead after a difficult year. That we can flock to bars and travel to family Christmases at all indicates we are in quite a lucky position. But I’m worried about those stuck in the throes of a never-ending winter.
As a growing number of coronavirus vaccines advance through clinical trials, wealthy countries are fueling an extraordinary gap in access around the world, laying claim to more than half the doses that could come on the market by the end of next year.
While many poor nations may be able to vaccinate at most 20% of their populations in 2021, some of the world’s richest countries have reserved enough doses to immunize their own multiple times over.
With no guarantee that any particular vaccine would come through, these countries hedged their bets on a number of candidates. But if all the doses they have claimed are delivered, the European Union could inoculate its residents twice, Britain and the United States could do so four times over, and Canada six times over, according to a New York Times analysis of data on vaccine contracts collected by Duke University, UNICEF and Airfinity, a science analytics company.
Megan Twohey, Keith Collins and Katie Thomas, The New York Times Published: 16 Dec 2020 01:05 AM BdST Updated: 16 Dec 2020 01:33 AM BdST Nathan Aamodt, left, documents Tim Ostgarden unload the COVID-19 vaccine at Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D., on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. The first shots were given in the American mass vaccination campaign on Monday morning, opening a new chapter in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more people in the United States than in any other country.(Tim Gruber/The New York Times)
As a growing number of coronavirus vaccines advance through clinical trials, wealthy countries are fuelling an extraordinary gap in access around the world, laying claim to more than half the doses that could come on the market by the end of next year.
Africa: The Scramble for Covid-19 Vaccine As Africa Left Out allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.