News & Analysis: Vaccine access and delivery
“Kenya has returned to the Global Fund for Sh3.3 billion ($31.1 million) to boost its COVID-19 response amid an ambitious vaccination plan targeting the entire adult population by the end of next year.”
“Over two million have so far been vaccinated in Ethiopia and a quick calculation will show that there can not be more than 150,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine left in stock. This means that hundreds of thousands of people will be forced to wait until the government can source a new batch.”
“Very few vaccines have found their way into the arms of Africans as countries struggle with a surge in COVID-19 infections. Several countries now want to start producing vaccines on the continent. Can they succeed?”
“The fact is, it’s not about sharing. It’s about allowing us access to the production capacity. If you loosen the contracts so that the supply capacity can be released to other nations, that is all we ask.”
“Kenya’s frontline workers, mostly doctors, have come out publicly to complain about missing their second dose appointments for a COVID vaccine due to a shortage in the East African country.”
“The WHO has sent a letter to the White House, asking it to urgently send COVID-19 vaccines to Zambia, Angola, and Zimbabwe.”
“South Africa, Mlumbi-Peter said, was fully aware that IP was not the only barrier to ramping up vaccine production. Voluntary licences, technology transfer and the sharing of clinical data as well as trade secrets could all play a part in what she called the toolkit of combating the pandemic.”
“The G7 has promised to donate 1 billion Covid vaccine doses by the end of 2021. However, in South Sudan, COVID-19 restrictions, aid cuts and comments by European leaders have shattered trust in public health advice and encouraged vaccine hesitancy. Despite the rhetoric, donating vaccines while cutting aid may prove meaningless.”
“Leadership and tough negotiations with drug companies is required to avoid wastage, increase weekly COVID-19 vaccination numbers and prevent a slowdown in the national roll-out.”
“South Africa has suffered the latest in a series of setbacks to its COVID-19 vaccination program, with the country’s medical-products regulator saying on Sunday that doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that were manufactured at a plant in Baltimore, Maryland and awaiting distribution in South Africa cannot be used because of possible contamination.”
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