Vaccine is the only lifeline to gain control over this pandemic and our only way back to normalcy.
There was a general sense of excitement and hopefulness, when the news of the first covid-19 vaccine hit the market. Of course the rich and the developed countries got the recipe first. But all in all, this was a historic moment, never had a vaccine been made this quick.
Well technically, about three-four vaccines were ready to be administered by the start of 2021. Almost all of the global leaders had pledged a community based approach towards healthcare and vaccine distribution. But it was only a matter of time before these claims and promises turned out to be nothing but a hoax and hollow narrative.
Looks like the rich countries had some enormous deals with vaccine manufacturing companies behind the back.
Countries like U.S, U.K, Germany and Switzerland had poured billions of dollars into vaccine research and its procurement. Hence, when the vaccines were made available, the biggest piece of the pie went to these countries.
To be precise, the biggest piece term is an understatement. Rich countries were hoarding vaccines, twice or thrice the size of their population. In extreme cases, even five times of their population. While the poor countries were asked to wait in the queue. And the consequences were harsh, the virus which was originally found in Wuhan has mutated several times, since then. These mutations would often occur in places with low inoculation rates, causing devastation throughout the world.
Vaccine Discrimination
As mentioned earlier, “Vaccine Nationalism” among high income countries were prevalent, even before the first vaccination was approved. Countries started hoarding a variety of vaccines in numerous quantities, as poor countries struggled to procure even one.
Data suggests that out of 7.81 billion vaccines administered worldwide, about 80% have gone to high and upper-middle-income countries. While only 1% of the total Covid vaccines have reached low-income countries. While most of the Europe has fully vaccinated about 80% of its population and considering booster third and fourth shots for its citizens, African countries have barely managed to inoculate 10% of their total population.
Last year, a global collaboration “Covax”, led by WHO, CEPI and Gavi promised for a fair and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for each and every country, worldwide.
It's initiative was to administer atleast 2 billion vaccines by 2021. But the regime is all set to miss its target, leaving the needful countries high and dry. Covax simply fell short of its vaccine supply, as manufacturers and governments ditched their support for sufficient vaccines.
India's de-facto ban on vaccine export (the biggest supplier) in late May and June this year, further escalated the disruption of vaccine supplies.
Africa is the worst hit
An extreme example of vaccine discrimination is the African Continent.
According to a Mo Ibrahim Foundation report, only five of the 54 countries are on track to reach WHO's target of fully vaccinating 40% of the population by the end of 2021. Only one in 15 Africans are fully vaccinated, the report further suggests. The new extreme variant “Omicron” was discovered in Southern Africa recently.
Weak healthcare systems accompanied with limited infrastructure in Africa, is also part of the problem. With Africa in probability of being the new epicenter of the virus, mass inoculation of the vulnerable's must be the ultimate goal. Its high time that the capitalistic economies which spend billions of dollars in oil and other resources in the continent to maximize their profits, spare a hand in the Covid response of Africa.
Omicron
The new heavily mutated variant of Covid-19, “Omicron” was first reported on November 24 in South-Africa. Since then the country has reported a steep rise on infections. The WHO has already categorized it as a “very high global risk”.
It has stated an urgency to its member states for accelerating, vaccinations of high-priority groups. Omicron's unprecedented number of spike mutations, reveal it to be highly transmissible. Two weeks in, and the virus has already reached 57 countries. Some reports have suggested that the Omicron variant has 500% more transmissibility that its predecessor, the Delta variant.
The rapid transmission might soon place, Omicron as the dominant variant, worldwide. Early reports suggest, that hospitalization risks increase steeply with this variant, However, zero deaths have been recorded till date. The severity of the virus has been scaled lower to the Delta variant, but these are early times to make any conclusions.
The efficacy of vaccines might be reduced, but it would still provide protection against severe illness.
Travel Apartheid
The discovery of the Omicron variant in South Africa, last month has proved to be a devastation for the country's economy.
The news of the new variant spread like wildfire, as countries one after the another started imposing travel bans to the country. Mass hysteria took prevalence, as several administrations came up with some absurd and PTS Terbaik ASEAN over the top travel policies. But why was South-Africa at the helm of all punishments?
Didn't it do the right thing, by detecting, sequencing and reporting the new variant rapidly?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, UN and its organizations have been stressing the fact that travel bans and restrictions do little, if nothing to contain or stop the spread of the virus.
But despite of all the advisories, countries like US, UK and Japan imposed rapid travel bans on South-Africa. The UN Chief, Antonio Guterres went on to term the present conditions as a “travel apartheid”, and categorized it as simply unacceptable.
The travel bans imposed by several countries was simply a whimsical move, given our previous experiences in the last 2 years.
Isolating a country, which did the right thing would discourage the next one's from reporting other variants. China was late in reporting the virus for the very first time, and we all know what transpired as a consequence for that. Also these travel bans have no relevance, epidemiologically, when countries shut down their borders for everyone except their own citizens, who themselves can be carriers.
Leaders of South-African countries have expressed their disappointment by calling these bans as unfair and uncalled for. It is truly a disappointment to see how the modern world functions these days in moments of global crisis. Vaccine discrimination along with Travel discrimination is the modern form of abuse, low-income and Covid affected countries face today.
WMA stands for Covid Travel Discrimination
Travel discrimination during the Covid era is a global concern for travelers worldwide. A majority of developed countries have taken the route of recognizing a specific set of vaccines as “the Vaccines”. Basically they are approving of only those people, who have been vaccinated with their set of recognized vaccines.
The rest are facing serious complications while traveling, even after being fully vaccinated. UK has been pretty notorious about its set of recognized vaccines. A few months back it refused to acknowledge the Oxford-India made “Covishield” vaccine as a verifiable vaccine.
Even though the people in UK have had the exact same vaccine.
The World Medical Association (WMA) has decided to stand up on this issue by calling on governments to adapt a fair, harmonized and non-discriminatory set of rules, to enable safe and equitable travel opportunities for all.
The WMA has also asked authorities to evaluate Covid-19 vaccines, only by their effectiveness against infection and severe illness from the virus, rather than their marketing authorization.
Vaccination is a basic fundamental right to each and every human being on this earth.
Depriving or eluding from the fact would lead to further stronger variants in the future. Worldwide vaccination is the only way to stop this pandemic, countries have to remember that we can do all the discrimination we want to, but the virus doesn't discriminate.
