Irish Examiner view: All rich nations must share vaccines

The WHO has warned that low levels of vaccination in poorer nations could lead to the emergence of dangerous variants resistant to current vaccines so it is in all our interests to share

Some wealthier countries have promised to share spare doses, but only when their own populations have been vaccinated. File picture: AP/Matias Delacroix

Leaders of wealthy nations meeting this week at the G7 summit in London have been urged to share spare coronavirus vaccines in order to avert a “moral catastrophe.” G7 is an informal group of wealthy democracies consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, and it is only fair that they should be asked to share spare vaccines with poorer countries.

The request has come from Dr John Nkengasong, director of The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention amid figures showing the continent is way behind other parts of the world in the global race to vaccinate people against Covid-19.

According to the Washington Post, the Biden administration is buying 500m doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to donate to the world, as the US dramatically increases its efforts to help vaccinate the global population.

With the US showing the way, it is also right that relatively wealthy smaller countries like Ireland should be asked to share. The question is when and to what extent and why should sharing be the responsibility only of western democracies? Surely, China, Russia, and wealthy Arab states also have a moral responsibility.

There is little doubt, though, that the situation in Africa is dire. In South Africa, which has the continent’s strongest economy and its biggest coronavirus caseload, just 0.8% of the population is fully vaccinated. In Zimbabwe, thousands of people are being turned away from vaccination centres as the country’s supplies of China’s Sinovac vaccine have run out.

The World Health Organization says the continent of 1.3bn people is facing a severe shortage of vaccines at the same time as a new wave of infections is rising across Africa. Vaccine shipments into Africa have ground to a “near halt”, the organisation said last week. Countries in Latin America such as Brazil, Peru, Chile and Mexico have also been badly affected.

Covax, the WHO-backed initiative aimed at securing an equitable global roll-out, has pledged to send vaccines to some 92 countries, but has so far received only 30 million of the minimum 200m doses it ordered from the Indian manufacturer Serum.

Some countries have promised to share spare doses but only when their own populations have been vaccinated. UK health secretary Matt Hancock said vaccinating children in the UK would take priority over sending doses abroad. That may, on the face of it, seem reasonable but it is also highly problematical. Firstly, countries like those in Africa may not be able to cope logistically if their supply of vaccines comes in an unmanageable bulk.

Wealthier countries should donate spare vaccines to poorer countries now, while still vaccinating at home. If poorer countries have to wait many more months before it receives vaccines, the virus is likely to spread and mutate. Indeed, the WHO has warned that low levels of vaccination in poorer nations could lead to the emergence of dangerous variants and make the pandemic last longer, with new strains emerging that cannot be controlled by current vaccines.

It is in all our interests to share vaccines because this pandemic will not be over anywhere until it is over everywhere.