Corporate DispatchPro
Vaccination of the fittest By mid-April, countries around the world administered almost 900 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Just a year earlier, confirmed cases of the new disease had risen to one million globally. The rapid vaccination programme is an incredible achievement, reaching roughly twelve per cent of the worldwide population. But a closer look at figures reveals a glaring disparity between richer and poorer economies. More than eight in every ten jabs have been administered in high- and upper-middle-income nations, while most low-income countries have not even started their vaccination processes. To date, eleven vaccines are being used by different governments, with those developed by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and OxfordAstraZeneca emerging as the most popular. At the beginning of the year, things looked like they were going according to plan. That did not last long. While countries compete for doses and threaten each other with halting of material supplies, medical issues traced to the jabs are raising levels of vaccine scepticism among citizens. European nations have fallen behind the UK and the US in their vaccination campaigns as member states vent frustration with an EU testing and procurement process that was meant to facilitate distribution. The European Commission has publicly rebuked AstraZeneca for failing to honour its supply commitments after the company slashed its deliveries by half and effectively pulling the brakes on vaccination in the bloc. The pharmaceutical giant came under intense scrutiny following reports linking its vaccine to cases of cerebral blood clots. National 17
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