Africa runs dry as Europe plans third vaccine doses

There’s a run on booster shots, but not everyone’s invited to the starting line. 

As countries like the U.K. and Germany look to give their citizens third doses of coronavirus vaccines and work to negotiate deals for what could be hundreds of millions of extra jabs, Africa is running on empty. 

With Europe having doled out about 67 doses per 100 people, some thought this was the chance for the rest of the world to finally begin to ramp up their own campaigns — like Africa, which has given out fewer than 4 vaccines per 100 people. But with more transmissible variants spreading and uncertainty growing about how long immunity from vaccination will last, European countries have begun in earnest to ring-fence additional vaccines for their populations. 

“Europe is making the same mistakes again, only looking out for itself while failing to take sufficient steps to help the rest of the world end the pandemic as soon as possible,” said ONE Campaign’s Brandon Locke.

On Wednesday, the U.K.’s vaccine committee advised the government to start giving a third dose to vulnerable groups from September on. The country has already purchased another 60 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine for booster shots and is expected to secure further deals for its booster program. Germany is also planning on purchasing 204 million vaccines for next year, according to Reuters.

At the EU level, the Commission exercised in June its option to purchase an additional 150 million Moderna doses, with another deal expected soon. That comes on top of another deal, inked in May, for a further 1.8 billion doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine that will start arriving at the end of the year and run through 2023.

To be sure, the EU, U.K. and U.S. have also pledged to share significant numbers of doses to low- and middle-income countries. But civil society groups have criticized some of these pledges as “too little, too late.”

Meanwhile, shipments of vaccines to Africa, which was largely relying on Oxford/AstraZeneca doses from COVAX coming through the Serum Institute of India, have dried up. Most countries are “running the risk of having zero doses in their territories in the next few weeks,” said Phionah Atuhebwe, new vaccines introduction officer at the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa.

At the same time, cases on the continent are doubling every three weeks, with the WHO estimating that oxygen demand is now 50 percent greater than during the first wave peak. 

“Once you think you’ve cleared one challenge … we have a new challenge that comes up,” said Atuhebwe when asked about wealthy nations buying booster shots. Pointing to the dismal vaccination figures in Africa, she warned the continent faces the possibility of a slow vaccination rollout for possibly a year more — a “really morally wrong” outcome.

“I believe that these countries are working in the best interests of their populations, which we understand,” she said. “But at the end of the day, look at where we are because of these variants. The variant just [emerges] in one country and [shortly] it’s all over the globe.”

Delta rising

Figures from the WHO on Thursday indicate that the extremely contagious Delta variant, first identified in India, has already been reported in 16 African countries and is dominant in South Africa — the hardest-hit country on the continent. “The speed and scale of Africa’s third wave is like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. “The rampant spread of more contagious variants pushes the threat to Africa up to a whole new level.”

Conversely, it’s also the rise of variants that’s spurring countries like Germany and the U.K. to secure extra vaccines. Germany’s reported plan for 204 million vaccine doses in 2022 is part of an effort to protect against mutations and the need for booster shots, as well as to ensure doses are available in case of production problems, according to the Reuters report.

But these decisions are also risking German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s legacy on global solidarity, warned Doctors Without Borders’.  

“Angela Merkel’s promise at the beginning of the pandemic that a COVID-19 vaccine is a global public good must sound like a mockery to people in low- and middle-income countries,” said Schwarz. “On the one hand, Germany was and still is instrumental in buying large quantities of vaccines, leaving hardly any for low- and middle-income countries. And on the other hand, Merkel is blocking the TRIPS waiver, which would help to quickly build up further production capacities in low- and middle-income countries.”

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