Coronavirus, the indigent will continue to suffer

Even when it comes to seeking remedies for the coronavirus, inequality and injustice stare us in the face. There is one fact that comes with industrial strength: the divide between the rich and poor can never be bridged. On the other hand, the gulf seems to be widening.

To illustrate .Of the approximately 12 billion doses the pharmaceutical industry is expected to produce next year, about 9 billion shots have already been reserved by rich countries. Which means it simply does not pay to be poor.

The global scheme to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries faces a “very high” risk of failure, potentially leaving nations home to billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024.

The World Health Organisation’s COVAX programme is the main global scheme to vaccinate people in poor and middle income countries around the world against the coronavirus. It aims to deliver at least 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021 to cover 20 per cent of the most vulnerable people in 91 poor and middle-income countries, mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

But in the race for the vaccine against the new coronavirus, rich countries have left their poor counterparts way behind. This raises huge doubts whether developing nations will get any vaccines in the first place to save lives before the pandemic finally bids us goodbye.

Earlier this month, the United Nations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, and others said it was a “moral imperative” that everyone have access to a “people’s vaccine.” But such grand declarations do not seem viable, and without a detailed strategy, the allocation of vaccines could be inequitable and extremely messy, said health experts.

With Americans, Britons and Canadians rolling up their sleeves to receive the coronavirus vaccines, the route out of the pandemic now seems clear to many in the West, even if the rollout will take many months. But for poorer nations, the road will be far longer and rougher.

The ambitious initiative known as COVAX, created to ensure the entire world has access to COVID-19 vaccines, has secured only a fraction of the 2 billion doses it hopes to buy over the next year. It is yet to confirm any actual deals to ship out vaccines and is reportedly short on cash.

There is a reason why the coronavirus shots will not be shared fairly between rich and poor nations. With vaccine supplies currently limited, developed countries, some of which helped fund the research with taxpayer money, are under tremendous pressure to protect their own population and are buying up shots. The poorer countries are therefore forced to look for alternatives.

Even with vaccines in hand, the rollouts will take many months, even in rich countries, and many developing ones are facing serious logistical challenges that will add to delays, noted Dr. Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases expert at the Christian Medical College at Vellore in southern India.

This just means that the whole call for global solidarity on the issue has been lost.

Like greedy boys bullying their weaker peers into submission while grabbing a big slice of the cake, Western countries are buying up the global vaccine supply “in excess of their needs while those in Africa are still struggling with the COVAX (effort).”

The problem is that failing to protect people in the developing world will leave a reservoir of coronavirus that could spark new outbreaks at any time.

And this is one scenario that could be worse than the one we are facing over the pandemic. Addressing these unjust gaps between the haves and have-nots should be the prime priority of the well-to-do nations. That is, if they don’t want to see a recurrence of the plague.