In these times of pandemic, the most important question is when is the whole population going to be vaccinated? Covid-19 cases are increasing, and the virus has been mutating with different strains now around the world; the numbers are telling a sad truth. Of course, it is not an easy task for governments to get the vaccines to be able to protect their population from Covid-19.
The world production of vaccines against Covid-19 has suffered serious problems, caused by economic issues and different countries’ ideology about the vaccine, among other causes. The economic issue is a very serious problem as millions of people die from Covid-19 because their governments cannot pay for vaccines. Some countries like the United States are donating some vaccines but the inequality is clear.
There are also the different ideologies of different countries about the vaccine. Some countries do not want the Covid-19 vaccine, for example Tanzania. Health Minister, Dorothy Gwajima, stated at a conference that the country had no vaccination plans and preferred to use natural medicines. The president had already declared the country free of Covid-19. However, the World Health Organization has still recommended that Tanzania prepare for vaccination.
According to Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in high-income countries one in four people is vaccinated; in poor countries just one in five hundred people is vaccinated. This shows the great difference in the distribution of vaccines between different countries. Although more than 700 million doses of vaccines have been administered worldwide, the richest countries have received more than 87% and low-income countries only 0.2%.
COVAX is one of the three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator which was launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization. The objective of COVAX is to distribute vaccines against Covid-19 to all countries with low resources. Thanks to COVAX, the increase in vaccines in underdeveloped countries has increased but there are still many people who have not received the vaccine yet.
In conclusion, world vaccination will be slow. In the meantime, the virus will continue mutating. Experts such as Dr. Tedros Adhanom supports COVAX saying that it works and that if everything continues like this, worldwide vaccination will take much less than expected. We need to have faith in the process, wait patiently for the vaccine to arrive in our countries and respect all the rules to keep ourselves protected.
Joaquín Muñoz
Bibliography:
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Jake Verzosa
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Low-income countries have received just 0.2 per cent of all COVID-19 shots given
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How to get COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries – and still keep patent benefits for drugmakers
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Coronavirus in Tanzania: The country that's rejecting the vaccine 6 february 2021
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Dr Seth Berkley Gavi COVAX explained 3 September 2021