CORRECTED VERSION: Vaccine Famine & its Impact on African Economies

The Republic of Congo received just over 300,000 doses of the COVID vaccines through the COVAX Facility in August 2021. Credit: UNICEF/Aimable TwiringiyimaBy Ahunna EziakonwaNEW YORK, Dec 21 2021 (IPS) We are about to start a third year of living with COVID-19. The world’s humanity and solidarity are now at a further test – and yet implications of the absence of solidarity keep us all in the boat of mutations, lockdowns, quarantines and delayed SDGs – denied prosperity for all. 2021 has unearthed a new expression of global inequity: “vaccine nationalism” – itself competing with high with socioeconomic downturns, jobless growth, the climate crisis, and rising poverty. As the pandemic ravages on, with Omicron on the scene, the futility of hoarding takes centre stage as even the heavy supply of boosters in advanced economies has not shielded them from the vicious cycle of pandemic-living. While about 60 per cent of the population in the US and 76 per cent of that in Canada are fully vaccinated, in Africa – a continent home to 1.3 billion people – the number barely reaches 8 per cent. Many have argued that vaccines’ short shelf life, hesitancy and logistic The world’s humanity and solidarity are now at its further test – and yet the implications of the absence of solidarity keep us all in the boat of mutations, lockdowns, quarantines and delayed SDGs – denied prosperity for all. 2021 has unearthed a new expression of global inequity: “vaccine nationali...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa COVID-19 Development & Aid Economy & Trade Featured Headlines Health TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news