The highest bidder takes it all
Northern countries are battling to guarantee their third and fourth shots against Omicron. But they ignore that this dispute brings us back to the same race set off when vaccines were first announced. This spiking demand for boosters in wealthy countries will make it all the more difficult for the Global South to reach safe vaccination rates.
The contexts then and now are very different. The US has administered 85 million boosters, Brazil 43 million, Germany 42 million, the UK 37 million. These are some of the same countries that oppose the sharing of technology and the production of biosimilar medicines and treatments at the World Trade Organization.
What about countries in Africa? With only 16% of the population vaccinated, African countries are struggling to deliver first doses, with many frontline workers still unprotected against the deadly virus. Nigeria has vaccinated only 2.5% of its population of over 100 million. Tanzania vaccinated 2.2%, DRC is at 0.34%.
Exceptionally, pushing the first dose rate up for the continent, South Africa with 32% coverage and Botswana with 50%, but less than 1,5 million boosters have been administered so far in the whole continent, leaving hundreds of millions exposed.
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