Rich countries have already bought over 80% supply of vaccines

Over 80 percent of deliveries of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines planned for 2021 have already been sold to rich countries. These have already contracted enough doses to vaccinate their entire population almost three times by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the poorer will not be able to vaccinate even doctors or people at risk. Nearly 70 lower and middle-income countries will vaccinate only 1 in 10 of their citizens this year, Amnesty International data shows. The organization emphasizes that, in accordance with international human rights law, richer countries are responsible for helping those with fewer resources, and without solidarity, it will not be possible to end the global Covid-19 pandemic. According to WHO, it will only be possible after vaccinating about 70 percent of the entire world population. 

“Even in Poland, which is a member state of one of the richest economic blocks in the world, vaccination against Covid-19 will be delayed due to difficulties in producing the appropriate number of doses of the vaccine. This shows that the poorest countries will probably have to wait many more months, if not years, to be able to vaccinate their citizens,” Dr. Wojciech Wilk, the president of the Polish Center for International Aid Foundation, said.

As he indicated, according to realistic forecasts, some African countries will be able to carry out mass vaccination only in 2023. This means they will be affected by the medical, social, and economic effects of the current pandemic for at least two more years.

“At the same time, they will be an epidemiological threat to other countries all the time, because the virus is mutating. We are talking not only about the mutation of the virus in the UK but also about new strains – possibly more contagious – that have appeared in South Africa, most recently in Brazil. Therefore, vaccinating as many people as possible in the world is necessary to ensure epidemiological safety,” Dr. Wojciech Wilk emphasized.

(Newseria)