In the Associated Press, Lori Hinnant and Maria Cheng write ” As many as 60 countries, including some of the world’s poorest, might be stalled at the first shots of their coronavirus vaccinations because nearly all deliveries through the global program intended to help them are blocked until as late as June.”

They write that this chronic vaccine shortage in poor countries is due to less clout of COVAX, the global initiative to provide vaccines to countries, and to negotiate vaccines supplies from the manufacturers.

WHO (World Health Organization) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus reported told “while one in four people in rich countries had received a vaccine, only one in 500 people in poorer countries had gotten a dose”.

At least 90% of people in 67 low income countries stand little chance of getting vaccinated against covid-19 in 2021 because wealthy nations have reserved more than they need and developers will not share their intellectual property.

People’s Vaccine Alliance, which includes Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now, and Oxfam (source: Journal thebmj)

“Rich countries with only 14% of the world’s population have bought up 53% of the eight most promising vaccines, the alliance said, including all of the Moderna vaccine doses expected to be produced over the next year and 96% of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses,” writes Owen Dyer in the British Medical Journal.

Mohga Kamal Yanni, a physician speaking for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, reportedly said “Rich countries have enough doses to vaccinate everyone nearly three times over, whilst poor countries don’t even have enough to reach health workers and people at risk. The current system—where pharmaceutical corporations use government funding for research, retain exclusive rights, and keep their technology secret to boost profits—could cost many lives.”

• Stalled at first jab: Vaccine shortages hit poor countries
• Covax: How will Covid vaccines be shared around the world?
• Covid-19: Many poor countries will see almost no vaccine next year, aid groups warn
• Most of the world’s poorest countries haven’t administered a single COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to the People’s Vaccine Alliance

In the Business Insider, Grace Dean writes citing People’s Vaccine alliance that ‘most of the world’s poorest countries haven’t administered a single COVID-19 vaccine dose’ as of March 14, 2021.

Rich nations, on average, vaccinated one person every second throughout January and February, while the majority of the poorest nations are yet to give a single dose.

People’s Vaccine Alliance (source: Business Insider)

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Vaccine Nationalism

People’s Vaccine Alliance reportedly have raised concerns for sometime about “vaccine nationalism“, a practice where is when richer countries hoard vaccines, while poorer countries are left scrambling to get their own stocks.

“The rich countries with only 16% of the world’s population had purchased 60% of available vaccine supplies” according to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director of WHO.

It’s an outrage that vaccine factories are lying idle, unable to produce COVID-19 vaccines because rich countries are prioritizing the patents of pharmaceutical companies ahead of the lives of people across the world.

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now (source: Business Insider)

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Gabriela Bucher, executive director at Oxfam International, reportedly said: “By allowing a small group of pharmaceutical companies to decide who lives and who dies, rich nations are prolonging this unprecedented global health emergency and putting countless more lives on the line.”

Alison Copeland, professor of human geography at Newcastle University, told Insider “In order to control the virus, we need worldwide herd immunity, so between 60% and 72% of the population need immunizing. This will hopefully be enough incentive for richer countries to help out.”

According a BBC report, only more than 38 million doses of vaccine have been delivered to 98 countries so far, as of first week of April 2021.