It has been over one year since the World Health Organization issued a Public Health Emergency of International Concern declaration for COVID-19. Yet despite pledges of solidarity and mutual cooperation from world leaders and diagnostic and therapeutic manufacturers in 2020, everyone’s worst fears about the absence of genuine solidarity in this health crisis have materialized.
Globally, some 100 million people have become ill with COVID-19, and over 2 million have died. Due to multiple political factors, including the hoarding of supplies and knowledge, the world now faces the very real possibility of not achieving global population immunity anytime soon—at a time when new variants and strains are emerging, effectively disrupting health systems, lives, and livelihoods everywhere.
And yet, while the United States and many rich countries are beginning to attempt to bring their epidemics under control through the deployment of highly effective vaccines, Africa currently has little actual access to COVID-19 vaccines. This is eerily similar
— source foreignpolicy.com | Fatima Hassan | Feb 23, 2021