COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution in Africa
- Amanda Nwokeji
- Apr 3, 2022
- 2 min read
The continent of Africa can never be considered a monolith; thousands of different cultures and backgrounds exist there, along with millions of people reflecting that diversity. However different Africans may be, though, it can be agreed that all of them deserve protection against COVID-19. In a world where wealthy nations are deciding to move on from the pandemic, the lack of comparable vaccination rates across Africa only becomes more concerning.
About ten percent of the African continent is vaccinated, compared to higher numbers in other parts of the world (Sidibe, 2022). This is not due to a lack of vaccines worldwide, but rather because of inequitable distribution. Currently there are enough vaccines available to vaccinate the majority of the continent, and yet these numbers do not translate into real life injections. A large part of the problem is that vaccines are simply not produced in Africa (Rich, 2022); this inevitably leads to an excessive dependence on outside sources, indicating a need for greater collaboration with local organizations such as the African Medicines Agency and ultimately a greater push for health service development across the continent.
In the meantime, the question of how to vaccinate the majority of Africa and the world must be answered. Companies or countries hoarding resources such as vaccines due to finance concerns is a part of modern day life must be recognized before it is combatted; in the long run, it is not financially advantageous to any country to avoid stamping out the pandemic worldwide. Every time that one part of the world exhales and stops worrying about COVID-19 for a moment, a new variant invariably arrives from somewhere else. We are irrevocably connected, and taking actions that recognize this truth is crucial to the collective survival of the global community against this disaster and the next.
References
Rich, D. (2022, February 19). Covid-19 in Africa: 'The Doses are Here, but Vaccine Hesitancy
Remains High.' France24. https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20220219-covid-19-in-
Sidibe, M. (2022, January 24). Vaccine Inequity: Ensuring Africa is Not Left Out. Brookings.
Comments