COVID-19 has badly affected many countries across Southern Africa as it has in almost every other parts of the world. It hasn’t mattered much that some countries have been more successful in tackling the health impact of the crisis more than others.
The massive economic impact, and the disruption to normal societal life caused by efforts to eradicate the pandemic globally has consistently defied the protections of national boundaries. It is why, long before vaccines gave us a glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel, we learned that only a globally coordinated approach will work in the fight against the Coronavirus.
The availability and equal distribution of vaccines is expected to prevent further loss of lives across the world by getting the pandemic under control, as well as preventing the loss of around US$ 375 billion to the global economy every month. This makes a globally coordinated vaccination effort not just an altruistic thing to do, but clearly serves the richer countries’ interests better, too. Yet—and despite the welcomed efforts of the Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) to ensure equitable global access to the COVID—19 vaccines, which many rich countries have also signed up to, many of these same countries are now engaged in the counterproductive vaccine nationalism.
The challenge that vaccine nationalism poses to global public health is laid bare by the disappointing result of the recent trial to test the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccines on the Coronavirus variant that has originated from South Africa. This is not something unique to South Africa. New variants of the Coronavirus have originated from countries in other parts of the world. This trend risks reversing the gains any one country makes in inoculating people within its own borders. It only makes sense for rich countries to make the rapid and equitable global distribution of vaccines a top priority.
Another factor that risks jeopardising the global effort to end this pandemic is the high prices and supply chain issues that currently affect speedy and equal distribution of vaccines to many countries of the Global South. The case of South Africa paying nearly 2.5 times the price most European countries have paid for the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID—19 vaccine is a case in point. It is outrageous and inexcusable for any country in the Global South to be charged more than rich countries of the Global North, particularly considering that the vaccine was publicly funded.
Even more alarming however is the lack of supply to many lower-middle and lower-income countries. While high-income countries with their population of about 1bn people have secured 4.2bn doses, in contrast, lower-middle and low-income countries have secured orders for only 675m doses as of late January 2021. This imbalance in vaccine access could undermine global efforts to end the pandemic and this must concern us all, wherever we are.
One of the ways for rich countries to show their commitment to a global approach to fighting this pandemic is for the United Kingdom and the other countries currently blocking the adoption of the landmark proposal submitted by South Arica and India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) requesting that countries be allowed to temporarily waive certain IP requirements of the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement to drop their opposition. This will allow the manufacturing and supply of vaccines and other COVID—19 medical tools to be scaled up across the world.