Africa has seen disproportionate delays in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines compared to the rest of the world, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission has lamented.
Addressing the Vaccines and Global Health Security Session of the G7 Foreign and Development Ministerial in the United Kingdom, Mussa Faki Mahamat the delay appeared to occur not only of “what we ordered on the market, but also those pledged under the Covax facility.”
To date, about 8,5 billion doses delivered around the globe but Africa has received only 264 million of that number which means that only 7 percent of Africans have been vaccinated, compared to 70 percent of people around the world.
“Let me be clear, when this global pandemic started, Africa asked for one thing only – to have the same access to vaccines at the same price when they became available. Two years later, we witnessed that these assurances of global solidarity were ignored,” he said.
“If that was not enough, recently when South African scientists alerted the world on the presence of a new variant, the country and the southern African region was slapped with travel restrictions. Is this normal?” he asked.
It became clear that for a population of 1,3 billion people, Africa, 14 percent of the world’s population, produces less than 0,1 percent of global vaccines. This came into stark focus with this pandemic he added.
In April this year, the African Union launched the African Vaccine Manufacturing Partnership (AVMP).
This Continental Vaccine Manufacturing Vision is “to ensure that Africa has timely access to vaccines to protect public health security, by establishing a sustainable vaccine development and manufacturing ecosystem in Africa’’. We are also operationalising the African Medicines Agency, which is a key part of our global health security strategy.
What do we expect from Africa’s friends?
Faki said: “At the risk of repeating the obvious, no one is safe until we all are, to be able to truly fight this pandemic. Now more than ever, the world must honor its commitments with urgency. Vaccine nationalism is self-defeating and suicidal in a global pandemic.
“And lastly, supporting African initiatives in the manufacture of essential medicines and vaccines beyond the COVID-19 is key to global health security. I urge the G7 to join the United States of America in the support of the Initiative by South Africa and India at the WTO to waive intellectual property rights to COVID-19 vaccines”.
MG/abj/APA