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HealthDay reporter
WEDNESDAY, September 15, 2021 (HealthDay News) -In Africa, only 4% of people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Leaders once hoped that 60% of people living on the continent would be vaccinated this year.
Now this seems unlikely.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have said they hope to supply African countries with 30% of the vaccines the continent needs by February, Associated Press reported.
Most of the 5.7 billion doses of vaccine administered worldwide so far have been in only 10 rich countries, as the UN-backed COVAX initiative has missed all its targets. COVAX is now asking rich countries to share their doses of vaccines, AP said.
Dr Seth Berkeley, chief executive of the Gavi Vaccines Alliance, told AP that COVAX expects to have 1.4 billion doses ready for delivery by the end of 2021, with about a quarter less than its original target.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebrejesus said on Tuesday that the discrepancy between rich and poor countries regarding the distribution of vaccines against COVID-19 is a “solvable problem”.
He asked pharmaceutical companies to share their vaccines worldwide. Tedros also called for a moratorium on booster shots in healthy people until the end of 2021.
The richer countries seem to be ignoring his request. The United Kingdom announced on Tuesday that it would offer boosters to people over the age of 50, as well as younger, vulnerable people, joining Israel, France and Germany, which have already begun intensifying efforts. An advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration will meet to discuss the issue of boosters for Americans this week.
The shift to boosters is taking place in some countries, even when new reports call into question the need for third shots in healthy people. In fact, earlier this week, two senior FDA officials and senior WHO scientists helped write an opinion. The lancet expressing opposition to boosters.
The issue of boosters in Africa is expensive, requiring another $ 500 million to $ 600 million “from a conservative side,” Afreximbank President Benedict Orama said, and with logistics $ 1 billion a year.
The African Union’s envoy for COVID-19 vaccines, Strive Masiyiwa, said export restrictions and intellectual property rights should be lifted to allow vaccines to be produced in Africa. The WHO and partners prepared for this in June by launching a center in South Africa that could make vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
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However, none of the companies have agreed to share vaccine prescriptions and they show no indication that they will do so, according to AP.
“This is not an unfounded call because our neighbors in the United States have supported these companies to produce some of these vaccines,” Masiyiwa said. “Now let this miracle be available to all mankind.”
More info
The World Health Organization describes COVID-19 worldwide.
SOURCE: Associated Press, September 14, 2021
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