Gordon Brown: Rich countries must fund vaccine equality if we want to defeat Covid

A woman opens her mouth for the heath worker to collect a sample for coronavirus testing during the screening and testing campaign aimed to combat the spread of COVID-19 at Lenasia South, south Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Picture: AP Photo/Themba Hadebe

Time and again throughout history, perpetrators of injustice have absolved themselves and justified miserliness and inaction by blaming the victim.

Amid allegations of African culpability for the Omicron outbreak and complaints from the global north about vaccine hesitancy and low take-up in the global south, 2021 has seen this shameful story being told anew.