Race for vaccine
Coronavirus: Race for vaccine could leave some countries behind
As the race for a coronavirus vaccine intensifies, rich countries are rushing to place advance orders for the inevitably limited supply to guarantee their citizens get immunised first.
But this leaves significant questions about whether developing countries will get any vaccine before the pandemic ends, reports AP.
Earlier this month, the UN, 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 are unenforceable, and the allocation of vaccines could be extremely messy.
Yuan Qiong Hu, a senior legal and policy adviser at Medecins Sans Frontieres in Geneva, said there is no road map on how ensure vaccine for everyone and noted that numerous problems must be resolved to manage distribution and that few measures have been taken.
Speaking at a vaccine summit earlier this month that addressed the thorny issue of equitable distribution, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said the global spread of COVID-19 has told us in no uncertain terms that disease knows no boundaries and no country can afford to go it alone."
4 years ago