Vaccine inequality will affect fight against COVID-19 in Africa ─Minister

*Nigerian Minister for Information and Culture at the 24th General Assembly of UNWTO, in Spain, has restated that access to COVID-19 Vaccines should be based on the principles grounded in the right of every human to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, political belief, economic or any other social condition

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

The Federal Government has expressed concern over the apparent lopsisded production and distribution of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccines and ‘unilateral deals’ by wealthy countries, and how the development will deprive the poorest countries of access to the life-saving commodities.

ConsumerConnect reports the West African country warned that lack of vaccinations by developing countries will provide a fertile ground for the Coronavirus to mutate, thus threatening the progress already recorded even in the developed countries of the world.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, issued the warning at the 24th General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Wednesday, December 1, 2021, in Madrid, Spain.

Mr. Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant To The President (Media), Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Wednesday stated Alhaji Mohammed was speaking against the background of the latest mutation (Omicron) of the COVID-19 virus, which has triggered a wave of travel bans on some countries in Africa.

The media aide noted the Minister said access to COVID-19 Vaccines should be based on the principles grounded in the right of every human to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, political belief, economic or any other social condition.

Several developed countries, Mohammed contended, have used the advantage of their enormous resources or relationship to sign agreements with manufacturers to supply their countries with vaccines ahead of making them available for use by other countries.

He said: “Even before the clinical trials were completed, millions of doses of the most promising vaccines have been bought by Britain, US, Japan and the European block countries. Some of these countries bought doses five times the size of their populations.

“There are fears that these unilateral deals will deprive the poorest countries of access to these life-saving commodities.”

The Minister futhher disclosed whereas developed countries have to increase their healthcare spending by less than 1 percent to cover for the additional cost of vaccines, poor countries have to do that by about 60 percent.

The booster doses will make COVID-19 vaccination a recurring expense, the cost of which will be unaffordable for many developing and poor countries, stated he.

The Minister also submitted that a slow and delayed vaccination rollout in low and middle-income countries has left many of them vulnerable to COVID-19 variants, new surges of infection and slower rate of recovery from the damaging pandemic.

He noted comparatively, as most developed countries have already vaccinated 60 percent and above of their population, most developing countries are currently below 5 percent.

Mohammed added: “My country, Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, has just vaccinated only about 3% of our population.”