Raise awareness of vaccine inequality
“We have the possibility to remove the death and devastation from COVID-19. Why aren’t we doing it?”
DR MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, WHO COVID-19 TECHNICAL LEAD
Raise awareness of vaccine inequality
In the words of the UN Secretary-General – make vaccine equity a reality.
“People are dying in countries because they don’t have access to COVID-19 vaccines,” WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove told Verified.
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The world has the tools to stop people dying from the coronavirus. We have vaccines, treatment and testing. But those tools are not being shared equally.
COVID-19 vaccinations are preventing millions of deaths – but only in countries that have access. In countries that are able to buy vaccines, we have seen that hospitalisations and deaths due to COVID-19 have fallen dramatically.
Some countries have vaccinated the majority of their citizens – such as the United Arab Emirates, Portugal and Singapore. Meanwhile, countries like Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen have only been able to vaccinate less than 1% of their citizens.
Of the billions of doses promised to COVAX by the world’s richest nations, only a fraction have been delivered. Meanwhile, those same rich nations have monopolised the supply of vaccines in bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies.
On top of this immense inequality, some countries are now administering third ‘booster’ doses to their populations, while hundreds of millions of people worldwide have not had their first jab.
When the world looks back on this pandemic in years to come will we be able to say vaccines saved lives everywhere, or only in countries with the power of wealth?
We must end this pandemic not as individual countries but as a planet.
