Post-COVID world

The uncomfortable reality of a post-COVID world

SAI CAMPBELL

The roll-out of vaccines in Australia appears to signal the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as millions flock to get their jab of AstraZeneca or Pfizer. There is, however, a more sordid global reality as the ugly face of vaccine inequity has begun to re-emerge. Vaccine inequity describes the unequal global distribution of vaccines as wealthier countries enjoy ample access, while poorer nations flounder.

Presently, the immunisation effort has been carried out with great success in several wealthy nations. Whilst efforts spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), such as COVAX, do aim to reduce vaccine inequity, WHO has been required to issue a moratorium on the purchase and distribution of booster shots which are additional shots of a vaccine intended to address waning immunity. This mandate has been largely ignored by many wealthier countries who have already begun to initiate booster programs. This decision, as urgently communicated by WHO, means that much needed vaccine supplies are redirected from many poorer nations with largely unvaccinated populations to countries that may already even have more than half of their population vaccinated.

This is problematic for two reasons. The first is the glaringly obvious injustice of withholding life saving vaccines for some of the world’s most vulnerable peoples. For example, as of 8th August 2021, only 0.68 percent of Nigeria’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 while 61.31% of Canada’s population enjoys complete immunity. Broadly, around 1% of the world’s poorest nations are vaccinated in stark contrast to the global average of 25 percent.

Secondly, while many of the wealthiest nations have argued they have a prerogative to protect their own citizens, this course of action ultimately lengthens the timeline of the pandemic and harms their populations by allowing large groups of unvaccinated people to persist. This creates reservoirs for the virus that will lead to dangerous mutations. This, in effect, could potentially negate national immunization efforts by wealthier countries as we have already seen with the emergence of the Delta variant, amongst others.

The need for booster shots has not yet been supported by solid scientific evidence. Many nations are still frantically rushing to procure their supply of boosters to allay fears of a resurgence of cases with the appearance of novel variants such as the Delta variant in India and Gamma variant in Brazil. We might expect to see more variants materialize as large proportions of the population remain unvaccinated and lax containment measures are in place. There is therefore an urgent need to bring in vaccine supplies to low-income countries. As of August 2021, high- and middle-income countries have received around 80 percent of the world’s vaccine supply so far, even though they represent less than half of the world’s population. The WHO has called for wealthier nations to withhold rolling out booster programs until at least September 2021 in hopes of ensuring at least 10 percent of the world’s population is vaccinated by that point.

Time and time again global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have disproportionately inflicted immense harm on the world’s poor whose only fault seems to be being born in the wrong country. Even if we are to see the end of this virus at some point in the future, the vaccine inequity disaster has demonstrated that the least privileged will continue to bear the brunt of international issues. Furthermore, the climate crisis has continued to quietly brew in the background of global news coverage. Once again, poorer nations stand to see much of their progress in lifting people out of poverty reversed as the climate crisis, compounded by COVID-19, has stripped them of critical human and material capital.

There is no room for selfishness in addressing problems of international scale as this virus has well-demonstrated. We must ensure that we are motivated not only by compassion, but simple common sense as we fight our way through this pandemic. We can only expect to see more viruses and other crises emerge in the future and a genuine concern and awareness of the world’s most vulnerable must underpin our actions.