This month’s press review will focus on the central issue ofunequal access to Covid vaccines worldwide.
While the vaccine is considered to be the main pillar of the response to the pandemic, only 8.93% of the African population has received at least one dose (compared with a global average of 49.6% as of November 2, 2021). This gap is unacceptable, both morally and epidemiologically.
The articles we’ve selected for you obviously deal with the financial stakes of access to vaccines (note, for example, Suerie Moon’s thoughts on the creation of dedicated international funds), but also with the political stakes (how to combat “vaccine nationalism”, ensure that vaccines will not be an object of geopolitical influence or blackmail, and that the promises of vaccine donations made by decision-makers in rich countries will be followed by deliveries as large as announced).
On this issue, as on others, the Covid crisis is a powerful indicator of inequalities. The fragility of healthcare systems is also an obstacle to access to vaccines. Such basic material issues as access to syringes and the management of expiration dates can be major obstacles to vaccination. Alice Desclaux and Khoudia Sow have also shown in Senegal that unpredictable access to vaccines can fuel vaccine hesitancy in certain contexts.
These are complex issues, and it is vital to avoid simplistic, caricatured arguments that pit access to vaccines for countries with limited resources against the need for a booster dose (a third dose scientifically justified on the basis of age or co-morbidities in the target population) in countries where the population is already largely vaccinated (see our article in Le Monde).
Some of these articles focus in particular on the challenges of drug production, mentioning in particular the need to lift patents, to impose greater transparency on laboratories, and the importance of pharmaceutical production being more evenly distributed around the world, particularly in low-income countries (the establishment of the first messenger RNA vaccine technology transfer platform in South Africa is a major step forward in this respect).
The challenge is obviously to respond to today’s health emergency, while preparing ourselves for tomorrow’s vaccine challenges, and you will also find in this selection some of the avenues identified by several high-level panels (the one set up by theWHO, and the one which has just presented its conclusions to the G20).
Access to vaccines for all is not only a question of solidarity or moral justice, it is also the best way for us to fight against the appearance of new variants and protect ourselves collectively against the virus.