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News > World

Ten Billion Vaccines Moved Through the World But Unequally

  • A COVID-19 vaccination site in New York, U.S., Dec. 7, 2021

    A COVID-19 vaccination site in New York, U.S., Dec. 7, 2021 | Photo: Xinhua

Published 28 January 2022
Opinion

"It is a triumph of science but a complete failure of global solidarity," said Madhukar Pai, a professor of epidemiology at McGill University in Montreal.

On Friday, the New York Times (NYT) reported that around 10 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally so far.

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In the wealthiest countries, 77 percent of people have received at least one dose, whereas in low-income countries the figure is less than 10 percent, according to University of Oxford's Our World in Data project.

"As North America and Europe race to overcome Omicron surges by offering boosters, with some nations even contemplating a fourth shot, more than one-third of the world's people, many of them in Africa and poor pockets of Asia, are still waiting for a first dose," the NYT pointed out. 

For example, the U.S. has administered five times as many extra shots -- about 85 million -- than the total number of doses administered in all of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.  The milestone reflected the astonishing speed with which governments and drug companies have mobilized their resources, and 10 billion doses could theoretically have meant "at least one shot for all of the world's 7.9 billion people," the NYT added.

"Ten billion doses is a triumph of science but a complete failure of global solidarity," said Madhukar Pai, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University in Montreal.

Inequality in the spatial distribution of vaccines, however, is not the only problem to be tackled to control the pandemic. While some poor nations have failed to vaccinate even a third of their population, the expansion of the anti-vax movement in developed countries continues.

On Friday, for example, the first vehicles of the "Freedom Convoy" began arriving in Ottawa. The anti-vax activists left from various locations in Canada to reach this city to express their rejection of COVID-19 vaccination and epidemiological restrictions.

As a preventive measure, authorities placed barriers in front of the Parliament to control the thousands of people who are expected to arrive. Police Chief Peter Sloly warned that officers will not tolerate acts of violence.

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