Africa shouldn't be forced to go it alone when it comes to Covid vaccines | Paul Farmer, Ishaan Desai and Agnes Binagwaho

Europe and the US have won the scramble for vaccines – now they must help African nations produce their ownMore than 3bn doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have now been administered worldwide. But as the campaign forges ahead, one continent lags far behind the rest. Africa, home to 17% of the global population, accounts forless than 2% of the shots given to date.In the scramble for vaccines, wealthy countries have come out on top, shoving Covax – the global procurement mechanism on which most of Africa relies – to the end of the queue. The continent’s drive was dealt another blow when India, overwhelmed by a wave of infections, suspended the export of Oxford/AstraZeneca doses manufactured by Covax’slargest supplier, the Serum Institute of India. With shipments unlikely to resume until the end of 2021, onlyseven out of 54 African nations are on track to immunise even 10% of their populations by September.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Coronavirus Infectious diseases Medical research Science Vaccines and immunisation Health Africa Source Type: news