JOIN USWorld Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus’ call to the world to enhance supplies of Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries should receive greater attention and response. The organisation has made this point earlier, too, and it needed reiteration because vaccine-producing countries, especially the rich nations, do not seem to have taken that seriously. It has gained special significance in the context of rich countries taking steps to give booster doses of vaccines to their citizens who have already received vaccinations. WHO has called for a moratorium on booster shots at least until the end of September to allow counties that have not vaccinated even a small percentage of their people to get some vaccination coverage. The US government has announced that all eligible people can receive a third booster dose. The UK, France, Germany and Israel are planning to do so, too.
Vaccine inequity is a problem in the global fight against the pandemic. While the developed countries have vaccinated most of their citizens, the poor countries have been left behind. It is estimated that the richer nations are vaccinating their people 30 times faster than poor nations, and the poorest 50 countries have not vaccinated even 3% of their populations. At the present pace, some African countries will take many years to cover their populations. The reasons are many. Lack of production facilities, financial constraints that make imports difficult, inadequate distribution infrastructure and vaccination facilities and lack of early planning are some reasons. The situation is different from that in India, which has well-established manufacturing facilities and a better delivery system than many other poor countries. India may have learnt lessons from its early mismanagement, and is trying to make up for the lost time, but most poor countries will not be able to help themselves even if they want to.
Since the pandemic respects no geographical, economic or other borders, it should be clear that no-one will be safe from it till everyone is safe in the world. Low coverage in some parts of the world will not only pose dangers to life and health of people in those areas but lead to the emergence of new variants of the virus and the rendering of existing vaccines ineffective elsewhere. So, providing more vaccines to the poorer world is not just a moral and humanitarian imperative, it is in the interest of the rich nations to do so. The WHO-led Covax programme, which seeks to provide vaccines to over 90 countries, is flagging due to lack of support and resources. It needs greater support from all better-placed countries.