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News > United Kingdom

WHO Says Pandemic Will Last Longer Due to Vaccine Apartheid

  • While Latin America and the Caribbean are on track to reach the WHO target of 40% before the end of the year, six countries have yet to vaccinate 20% of their populations.

    While Latin America and the Caribbean are on track to reach the WHO target of 40% before the end of the year, six countries have yet to vaccinate 20% of their populations. | Photo: Twitter/@pahowaho

Published 21 October 2021
Opinion

The COVID-19 pandemic "will last a year longer than it should" because the poorest countries are not receiving the vaccines they need, warned the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr. Bruce Aylward, one of the WHO's leaders, said that, in that context, the crisis caused by the spread of SARS-Cov-2 could "easily extend to 2022."

Less than 5% of Africa's population has been vaccinated with the two doses, compared with 40% in most other continents.

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The original idea behind Covax, the United Nations-backed global program to distribute vaccines fairly, was that all countries could acquire vaccines through that mechanism, including participating rich countries.

But most G7 countries decided to hold back after they began making bilateral agreements directly with pharmaceutical companies to secure their own vaccines.

The vast majority of covid vaccines have been used in high- or upper-middle-income countries. Africa accounts for only 2.6% of doses administered globally.

A group of charities, including Oxfam and UNAids, criticized Canada and the UK for procuring vaccines for their own populations through Covax.

Official figures show that earlier this year, the UK received 539,370 doses from Pfizer, while Canada took just under one million doses from AstraZeneca.

Aylward called on rich countries to give up their places in the queue to buy vaccines so that pharmaceutical companies can prioritize lower-income countries.

He said rich countries need to "do an assessment" of where they stand on the donation commitments they made at summits such as the G7 meeting in the summer.

"I can tell you we are not on track," he said. "We really need to accelerate it (vaccine distribution) or you know what, this pandemic will last a year longer than it needs to."

The U.K. has delivered more than 10 million vaccines to countries in need and has pledged to give a total of 100 million.

The People's Vaccine alliance of charities has released new figures suggesting that only one in seven of the doses promised by pharmaceutical companies and rich countries are reaching their destinations in the poorest countries.

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