Throughout the past 20 months, we’ve all had to scale up our knowledge on viruses, vaccines and variants because, just as it seems that the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus is under control and we’re nearing ‘the end’, a new variant surfaces, bringing about another wave and a new set of restrictions.
Since the start of this, a vaccine was our holy grail out of the pandemic and back to life as we once knew it.
But what went wrong? How are we still here, almost a year after the first vaccine was administered?
As it stands, around nine in 10 of the Maltese population have been fully vaccinated and a booster programme is already operating in full force. Unfortunately, these numbers have not been mirrored in the global south, underlining the vaccine inequities between the higher-and lower-income countries.
Before the vaccines were even available, developed countries had signed advance contracts with vaccine manufacturers for vaccines that were still in development, making it unachievable for poorer countries to secure doses for their populations.
Despite the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) attempt to avert vaccine hoarding from high-income countries, for every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, as opposed to four doses per 100 people in low-income countries, as was highlighted in a letter by the WHO.
These dire statistics are the reason we’re still in this situation, enabling a new variant like the B.1.1.529, now referred to as ‘Omicron’, which was first detected in South Africa, to evolve.
In fact, in a Twitter announcement, Health Minister Chris Fearne stated that travel to the African countries with known cases of this variant has been temporarily banned.
Global efforts, such as COVAX (a global collaboration set up at the start of the pandemic to ensure equitable access to vaccines) were unable to meet their immunisation targets in the lower-income countries since promises from the higher-income countries were not delivered.
Despite over 90 million doses having been donated and delivered to the African continent via COVAX, most of the donations have had short shelf lives, aggravated by short notice, thus making it extremely challenging for countries to mobilise vaccination campaigns and increase their immunisation rates.
We must unite through global actions to save lives- Rebecca Camenzuli
Therefore, a sustainable source of supply is fundamental to overcoming the challenge these countries are currently facing. The G7 countries, which includes the EU as a guest, promised to immunise the whole world with their vaccine surplus last June, however, they’ve fallen embarrassingly short on delivery, with the EU delivering only 19 per cent of what was promised.
This new COVID-19 variant has been described as “the worst ever” and if Western countries needed a wake-up call to scale up the vaccine distribution to poorer counties, this is it.
According to Stephen Evans, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, “our failing to vaccinate people in low- and middle-income countries is going to damage the higher-income countries in the end, it’s very simple”.
In his bold statement, the WHO’s director-general expressed that “vaccine inequity is the world’s biggest obstacle to ending this pandemic and recovering from COVID-19”.
Governments need to step up to this inequity crisis. It is crucial that individuals’ lives in the world’s most vulnerable and poorest countries are no longer overlooked and that the decision makers are held accountable for their promises. Coordinated action is needed to alleviate the burden on these marginalised countries through equitable access to public health resources.
As 2021 comes to an end, it can go down as the year for vaccines and variants. However, this brings a new year which comes with a clean slate and a new set of opportunities, so I hope that, in a year from now when I’m reflecting back on 2022, I’d be able to describe it as the year for equitable vaccine access because there is no alternative way to face a global public health crisis like COVID-19.
Together, we must unite through global actions to save lives, reduce suffering and ensure a sustainable global recovery out of this dark tunnel we’ve been in. But before every country is given the same opportunity to immunisations, restrictions will still be required because, as the WHO says: “Nobody wins the race until everyone wins.”
Rebecca Camenzuli, Masters student, London School of Tropical Medicine