How richer countries continue to receive millions of COVID-19 injections to mobilize the population in major campaigns, and despite the World Health Organization (WHO) advocating for equitable access and In fairness, the South African Union has called for a ‘population vaccine’ to provide for the poor. countries amid staggering global demand and scarce supply.
As cases of the new variant of coronavirus have risen across the African continent, South African leadership has lamented the ‘few’ options left by poor African countries to buy the vaccines. According to Bloomberg, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have offered the agreement to dispose of 50 million filters in Africa by the end of 2021. The US-based pharma company had said it could not start supply in March.
Moderna Inc. refused to ship the vaccines to the African continent due to rising demand in western countries and limited manufacturing units with patents. Similarly, Oxford-manufactured AstraZeneca vaccine refused to accept orders for African countries until the 3rd quarter of 2021. This left the African Union with the option to negotiate with the Serum Institute of India Limited to get the jobs .
Vaccine nationality is not only unfair, it is self-defense.
No country will be safe from # COVID19 so that all countries will be safe.
– António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 3, 2021
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, chairman of the African Union had earlier pushed for the WTO World Trade Organization to ban intellectual property rights until the COVID-19 vaccines reach African countries. However, the high-income countries (HICs) have been able to buy advanced dosages, leaving poor African countries behind, devastated by the health crisis. Many low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) on the continent have been getting enough doses that only 10 per cent of the total African population can be vaccinated.
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‘Inaccessible’ vaccine due to high cost
As Africa enters into talks with Johnson & Johnson to get the vaccines, the leadership complained about Pfizer’s very high costs that made the product affordable for the poor countries. Despite the clinical trials conducted across African countries for the possible vaccination of Johnson & Johnson, President Cyril Ramaphosa told Bloomberg sources that it is not clear whether the company negotiates the affordable price for Africa until the vaccine is obtained to prevent the devastating effect. of the pandemic. However, the global race to vaccination is making it difficult for African countries to gain the upper hand with the supply as the richest countries testify to rapid access to the vaccine.
Under Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the U.S. is looking to receive another 300 million doses of the vaccines in January 2021. In addition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced $ funding 456 million for Johnson & Johnson and $ 483 million for Modern to find the emergency authority from FDA and get the doses for their population.
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