Developing countries are not begging for assistance, they are requesting the right to manufacture the available vaccines.
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| [COVID-19 Vaccination] |
Margaret Keenan, a British grandmother in her 90s, became the world's first individual to receive the COVID-19 vaccination in December 2020. With a life-saving shot produced in record speed, it was hailed as a glorious day for science and mankind. However, a year later, it has also revealed how uneven our globe is.
Despite being a worldwide epidemic, affluent nations received 92 percent of the six billion doses delivered. Scientists have cautioned that the only way to prevent the pandemic is to vaccinate as many people as possible. As a result, during the UN General Assembly's COVID-19 conference, US President Joe Biden urged affluent countries to follow Washington's lead and pay generously to combat the virus.
Biden said," The United States is buying another half billion doses of Pfizer vaccines to donate to low and middle income countries around the world. This is another half billion doses that will all be shipped by this time next year. And it brings our total commitment of donated vaccines to over 1.1 billion vaccines to be donated. We should unite around the world on a few principles that we commit to donating, not selling, donating doses to low and lower income countries and that the donations come with no political strings attached. "
Afghanistan is now one of the countries in dire need of immunization. International organizations and donors have stopped financing the Taliban since they gained power. Health professionals are now being forced to choose who to rescue and who to let die, according to WHO (World Health Organization). The World Health Organization's director-general paid a visit to Kabul, where he spoke with Taliban leaders as well as physicians and nurses who are trying to treat patients.
The Coronavirus continues to spread unchecked in Afghanistan, but budget cuts have forced a fourth of COVID institutions to shut, possibly wasting millions of vaccinations, according to the WHO head. According to Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, "In Afghanistan, considerable progress has been made in decreasing maternal and child mortality, getting closer to polio eradication, and more during the last 20 years. With the country's health system on the verge of collapse, those accomplishments are now in jeopardy. There has been an increase in measles and diarrhoea cases. Nearly half of all children are at danger of malnutrition. Polio recurrence is a serious concern, and 2.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have yet to be utilized."
Despite the fact that billions of vaccinations are manufactured each year, the amount of individuals who are still waiting for such life-saving immunizations is a major worry. While wealthy countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have safeguarded the majority of their populations, African countries have only just begun; fewer than 4% of the continent has been completely vaccinated. Many leaders expressed their displeasure with the rising disparity during this year's UN General Assembly. "These discrepancies enable for third doses to be given in certain situations while in other cases in Africa, the great bulk of the population hasn't even gotten the first dosage!" remarked Joao Lourenco, the President of Angola.
The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said," It is an indictment on humanity that more than 82% of the world's vaccine doses have been acquired by wealthy countries while less than 1% has gone to low income countries. "
Hage Geingob, the Namibian President said," Vaccine apartheid has resulted in significant disparities in terms of vaccine roll-out and availability with many people in developing countries left out. "
The Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa stated," Vaccine nationalism is self-defeating and the contrary to the mantra that no one is safe until everyone safe. "
The Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi said," Let's be mindful of the fact that a variant somewhere is a variant everywhere. "
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was among those who called for more equal access to vaccinations throughout the world. In his nation, just around 3% of the population has been vaccinated.
When we look at the percentage of vaccine coverage or vaccination coverage in African countries, we find that about 6.14 percent of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and about 4% has received two doses, which is slightly higher than some other countries such as Kenya, where only 4.9 percent of the population has received only one dose and only 1.7 percent has received two doses.
Joe Biden's approach appears to be the only option to persuade affluent countries to skip booster dosage initiatives for the time being in order to deliver more initial doses to the rest of the globe. However, they must be persuaded that a new mutation, or the likelihood of a new mutation or variation developing, poses a larger harm to their community since far too few individuals are vaccinated.
18 months ago, international leaders were lined up to say that finding and developing an effective vaccine would be a worldwide public benefit, but today we're in the opposite scenario. Now is the time for those international leaders to take action. If they keep doing what they're doing, we'll have the same huge disparities all over the world.
The Biden meeting this week was another another kind act. Experts recommend that dosages be redistributed immediately, as the WHO's director general has requested. However, that is not what all emerging countries require.
Developing countries are not begging for assistance. They are requesting the right to manufacture the available vaccinations, which is being denied to them by a small group of wealthy countries that refuse to agree to a proposal at the World Trade Organization to lift the patent, or intellectual property, on these vaccines.
As a result, technology may be shared, allowing manufacturing to be more widely dispersed throughout the world, enabling poor countries to become less reliant on handouts from wealthy nations.
The current scenario is also not in the best interests of people in wealthy nations, since until we get this virus under control and everyone is protected, everyone in the globe, including those countries that have been completely vaccinated, is at danger of those variations.
The free vaccines are being presented as charity by US President Joe Biden, and they are attempting to portray themselves as doing something nice for needy countries by providing a huge amount of vaccines. They don't seem to realize that if impoverished nations can't contain the epidemic, everyone will be affected. According to experts in the United Kingdom, the epidemic would be over in a year due to huge vaccine campaigns and the development of hard immunity.
Experts in the United Kingdom believe that they will only have to get through this winter before COVID-19 becomes a common cold or, at worst, a normal flu virus.
The United Kingdom has been adamant about delivering vaccinations and is now moving on to booster doses. In the case of the United Kingdom, being selfish has paid off. However, other experts argue that this is a very restrictive definition of safety, especially given the fact that there are still places across the world where infection levels are low. However, this virus is active in other regions of the world.
While affluent nations appear to be providing vaccines, they are really obstructing attempts by the World Trade Organization and other countries to get the patent burden removed. As a result, the WHO and vaccine-deficient countries must call attention to the double standard and raise a louder voice for fair distribution.