“We want to buy vaccines”, he said Strive Masiyiwa, African Union (AU) Special Envoy for Vaccine Procurement, at a press conference at the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, 14 September 2021. “Sharing vaccines is good. But we shouldn’t rely on sharing vaccines.”, He continued.
Although the African Union has established an African Vaccine Procurement Fund (AVAT), vaccine manufacturers have, in the eyes of the AU Special Envoy, the “moral responsibility” to also sell doses to African countries: “These manufacturers know full well that they never gave us adequate access.” in doses.
For Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Africa, these manufacturers “They must be more transparent about their supply schedules and countries with sufficient doses must abandon their place in the manufacturing queue” benefit of the Covax mechanism, which guarantees access to serums in less wealthy countries.
“The fastest way to end this pandemic is for countries with reserves to release their doses so that other countries can buy them.”, added on September 16 the WHO regional director during the office’s weekly press conference. “Countries that have promised doses urgently need to deliver on their promises, now rather than later, and intensify vaccine sharing,” he said. she added.
Although more advanced countries administer third doses, injections still do not take off in poor countries, especially in Africa. About 50 million Africans are fully vaccinated, or 3.6% of the continent’s population, according to the WHO. The latter hopes to help each country immunize at least 40% of its population by the end of the year and 70% of the world’s population by the middle of next year.
The United Nations agency therefore asked the states concerned to suspend recall campaigns until the end of the year. The Covax international system recently revised its forecasts downwards, due to lack of sufficient doses.
“Current data indicate that third doses should only be given to people at high risk of serious illness and death despite full vaccination, including those with compromised immune systems.” recalled Dr. Matshidiso Moeti.
Strive Masiyiwa, the African Union (AU) special envoy, on September 14th again convened the international community to suspend intellectual property rights in vaccines. However, according to him, it is even more urgent for countries to end the “export restrictions on vaccines and their components”.
African countries “have been abandoned by the rest of the world”, summarized in turn the Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the same press conference.
The African continent now has more than 8 million cases of Covid-19, but “for the 9th consecutive week”, new cases are down. However, it insists that Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, it is not “a reason to let your guard down.”
