![]() ![]() A recent study from The Economist estimated that, among other regions, sub-Saharan Africa will register the highest economic losses (3 percent of GDP from 2022-2025) due to slow vaccination rates. Delays in vaccinating everyone have an economic cost as well. Africa cannot and must not be left out of the vaccination conversation. Moreover, the solution is not charity: Given the emergence and spread of variants, the pandemic will not be over until it is over everywhere. There is no greater test of moral solidarity and the world’s ability to come together than this global health challenge. In addition, to ensure the best allocation and distribution of vaccines, COVAX should work with the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), which has pooled resources to procure vaccines for its member states. Western countries should agree to transfer their vast stockpile of unused vaccines to COVAX to ensure that the vaccines reach the places most in need. By December 2021, over 1.2 billion doses could be available for donation by the G7 alone. Despite the acute vaccine supply shortage in Africa, global vaccine production has been increasing at a secure rate, around 1.5 billion doses per month. The issue is no longer one of supply but rather one of unequal distribution. Such vaccine inequality is not simply unjust given the potential for dangerous mutations that could affect vaccine effectiveness, it is epidemiologically wrong. As a result, Africa may well become the COVID epicenter. More specifically, it has underscored the critical gap in vaccine manufacturing as a whole: Before COVID-19, Africa produced less than 1 percent of the vaccines that it consumed-importing over 99 percent-despite consuming over 25 percent of vaccines globally. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our continent’s vulnerabilities in ensuring access to vital drugs, vaccines, and health technologies. ![]()
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