Africa deserves equitable access to vaccine doses

Editorial news for Monday, February 15, 2021

Source: Ghanaian weather

02/15/2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week on Thursday that nearly 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine traded through the COVAX facility would be shipped to Africa from February.

A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official Dr Matshidiso Moeti said the arrival of vaccines will mark a crucial step in the continent’s quest to contain the pandemic.

“Africa has seen other regions launch COVID-19 vaccination campaigns for too long,” Dr Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said in a statement issued in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to the WHO, COVAX informed African countries on January 30 of the planned shipment of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine doses to pave the way for the largest mass inoculation campaign ever on the continent.

Dr Moeti said the deployment of the AstraZeneca / Oxford AZD1222 vaccine will be put on its list for emergency use by WHO and national regulatory bodies, after crossing the threshold for efficacy and safety.

She said the initial phase of 90 million doses will allow African countries to immunize three percent of their population at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19), including health workers, the elderly and the terminally ill in the first half of this year.

In addition, she said that the African Union (AU), in an effort to complement COVAX’s efforts, had secured 670 million doses of vaccine to be distributed on the continent in 2021 and 2022.

Dr Moeti said that nearly 320,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been allocated to four African countries including Cape Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia.

According to Dr Moeti, there are plans to vaccinate at least 20% of Africa’s population ensuring that up to 600 million doses are available by the end of 2021.

Usually, this should be good news for the continent and laudable efforts by the WHO and AU to secure vaccines for countries to vaccinate their citizens against the deadly COVID-19 disease.

But is this really the case? Is Africa treated fairly and equitably in the distribution of vaccine doses? We do not think so. As countries in Europe, UK, US and parts of Asia roll out millions of vaccines, Africa stands on the sidelines to watch the disease spread and kill its people and still undertake critical vaccination of its citizens.

The Ghanaian Times wonders why the continent is not in the race to acquire the doses of vaccine for its people and must wait for the rich and powerful countries to collect all the available vaccines before arriving in turn.

COVID-19 vaccines are meant to keep everyone safe and the longer it takes to reach people, especially poorer countries, the greater the risk of dying from the disease.

It is therefore, in our sincere opinion, that the continent and its various countries are putting in much more effort, preferably collectively, to find local remedies to support all the aid they receive from abroad.

There is no need to remind ourselves that we are running against time and that it is essential that the continent is not left behind in this abnormal time by ensuring it gets equitable access to vaccines to protect its people. citizens of the pandemic.