Vaccine equality has to start at home

Poor communities just like poor nations continue to suffer from limited access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought immeasurable challenges across the world. As of early October, there have been more than 238 million confirmed cases and 4.8 million deaths globally, with the number of infections rapidly rising – particularly among the unvaccinated.

The emergence of new, more contagious variants, such as the Delta one, underscores the urgency of vaccine rollout. Studies have shown that low vaccination coverage is a major driver of the current rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

As the pandemic rages on, wealthy countries continue to hoard vaccines, ignoring criticism and warnings from the World Health Organization. Whereas developed nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, etc have vaccinated more than 50 percent of their populations, developing ones in Africa have vaccinated less than two percent of their populations. As rich countries start to give COVID-19 “booster” shots to persons already vaccinated, poorer countries still struggle with vaccine supplies, and the global inequity of vaccine access is becoming ever more apparent.