• WHO boss Dr Tedros said it was not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries.
• Out of a total of 41.39 million vaccination doses that have been administered globally, 12.28 million have been in the US alone.
On Monday, the World Health Organisation warned the world is on the brink of “catastrophic moral failure” in sharing Covid-19 vaccines.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.
Dr Tedros told an annual meeting of the WHO’s executive board that lower-income countries could get 'left behind' in the race to vaccinate the world against the virus that has so far killed more than two million globally.
He warned of the risks to fair distribution caused by rich nations’ hoarding of available shots as he urged countries and manufacturers to spread doses more fairly around the world.
The WHO boss lifted the lid on the unequal distribution of vaccines by revealing that only 25 doses have been administered across all poor countries compared with over 39 million in wealthier ones.
"The situation is compounded by the fact that most manufacturers have prioritized regulatory approval in rich countries where the profits are highest, rather than submitting full dossiers to WHO," Tedros said.
The WHO chief said that whereas it was the right for all governments to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first, it was not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries.
"There will be enough vaccine for everyone. But right now, we must work together as one global family to prioritize those most at risk of severe diseases and death, in all countries," he said.
The vaccines include Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Sinovac.
A closer look at statistics from the scientific online publication Our World In Data, echoes the WHO warning as richer nations, mostly from Europe and the US, continue to rapidly administer vaccination doses among their populations as Africa continue to await the rollout.
According to the data, as of January 18, a total of 41.39 million vaccination doses had been administered globally.
Out of these, 12.28 million were administered in the US alone, 10 million in China while 4.51 million were done in the United Kingdom.
Other top countries include Israel (2.61 million), UAE (1.97 million), Italy (1.19 million), Germany (1.15 million) and Russia (1 million).
The African Union last week said it has secured a provisional 270 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states to supplement the COVAX programme - a global vaccine-sharing fund.
Currently, Covid-19 cases on the continent stand at over 3.3 million.
During a special meeting of the AU Bureau of the Assembly, AU Chair and Sout Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa said at least 50 million vaccines will be made available between April and June 2021.
The vaccines will be supplied by Pfizer, AstraZeneca (through an independent licensee, Serum Institute of India) and Johnson & Johnson.
Upon delivery of the vaccines, member states may pay using their internal resources or access an instalment payment facility of up to five years offered by Afreximbank.
The AU, however, is concerned that the COVAX volumes to be released between February and June may not extend beyond the needs of frontline health care workers.
Another challenge is that the target of 600 million doses from COVAX will cover only about 300 million people across the African continent, which is only about 20 per cent of the population.
Pfizer has offered to provide only 50 million doses of its vaccine to Africa’s 1.3 billion people between March and December 2021, while Moderna has none allocated for Africa this year.
Last month, a survey conducted by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) showed a predominant majority (79 per cent average) of respondents in Africa would take a Covid-19 vaccine if it were deemed safe and effective.
Conducted between August and December 2020, the survey interviewed more than 15,000 adults, aged 18 years and above, across 15 African countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda.