WHO says vaccine inequity will prolong pandemic - makes sense

[Annabellerina]

www.cnbc.com/2021/12/22/who-says-covid-vaccine-booster-programs-will-prolong-pandemic.html

Makes sense to me. Why are the vaccines so unevenly distributed when this is a global pandemic?

Isn't part of the problem getting people on other countries to actually use the vaccines? Only skimmed past the headline but didn't Nigeria just dispose of a load of out of date vaccines? Am assuming that wasn't because of a technical issue

I'm sure there's an inequality in distribution but there's also a problem getting people to take them when they actually do have the vaccines. I remember seeing a programme on a country in Africa, Kenya?, and they had supplies that they couldn't get anyone to take. Eventually with a week left before the vaccines expired, they gave them to another country in the hope they'd use them. The clinical director had been so happy to receive the vaccines and at the end he looked so sad.
So I think the WHO have a lot more work to do than just berating certain countries.

Oh, it might have been Nigeria. It was a Commonwealth country, though.

I have got my booster and my 76 yr old mother in India hasn't. Not because she doesn't want it. People in India want it hut we are still not done with first and second doses. I feel very guilty.

I read somewhere, and also heard on the news that it's not as simple as providing countries with vaccine. Some low rate vaccinated countries have enough supply, but lacks logistics. Also many people are hesitant and misinformed.

Wouldn't the governments of developed countries be better off putting resources and manpower into overcoming those (logistics/misinformation) problems then, rather than pushing for boosters here?

I don’t see how no countries in the world having high rates of vaccination will speed up the end of the pandemic, and it’s not as if wealthy countries haven’t struggled to persuade their populations to get to high vaccination levels. The WHO needs to clarify what it thinks countries actually should and could be doing to maximise effectiveness and equality, because it seems to have gone from saying boosters were bad and wasteful to boosters are necessary; from masks were no good to masks are good; from countries shouldn’t close borders to people should stop travelling about; from wealthy countries should be sharing vaccines more to Europe is about to be overwhelmed by a tsunami of covid cases (but shouldn’t hog the vaccinations to help its own populations?). I have no idea whatsoever what the WHO really thinks is possible or realistic at this moment in time, as I just hear floundering noises whenever it makes any pronouncements - either that, or this is just the way it is being reported.

The only way out is if everyone in the world who can get vaccinated, does. So yes, the countries who have loads should share and assist but that only works if you can convince people that they are safe. Western countries haven't helped even themselves with certain politicians disparaging vaccines, so aren't really in a position to tell other countries what to do.

I don't think Western leaders are telling other countries what to do be because if they were to do that, they'd have to give up their vaccine supplies. It's the WHO who are telling countries what to do. And at this point, who really respects or trusts what the WHO say? But they have to keep saying something or they'll have no relevance.

Yep - absolutely. The high and middle income countries have secured their vaccines and boosters, while the virus merrily mutates in those countries with poor vaccine availability. Gordon Brown is right, and potentially the best PM we never really had.

Collectivism is the best approach to combat Covid but we are all too greedy for that. The anti science posters on here are the epitome of rampant individualism - and the main threat to our world - whether it’s putting personal freedom and wants above the needs of others, or not giving a flying f about the environment (so long as all their personal ‘desires’ are catered for). And they are doing/that attitude - is far worse than any government.

I think you have to persuade people though. I don't advocate compelling people be vaccinated

Here's the article:

www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/exclusive-up-1-million-covid-vaccines-wasted-nigeria-last-month-2021-12-08/

The problem is that Western governments donate vaccines with a short shelf life left in them, due to weaker infrastructure than the west it is difficult for them to actually use them in time. So far only 4% of the 200 million Nigerians have been vaccinated.

The Nigerians had vaccines that were not out of date, nowhere near, and the medical director was face to face with peoole begging them to take them. And they still refused. In the end they gave them away to another country. The programme showed him in a clinic trying to persuade people. He was quite tearful.

I haven't read what Gordon Brown has said, but he's hardly a visionary. Everyone knows that the world needs to be vaccinated to lessen the risk (you can't eradicate it) but you can't force people and if countries that have the vaccine can't administer it because their citizens wont take it, what can the west do. Reading MN, its hard enough to get some people to wear a mask never mind have an injection. Maybe GB should go use his considerable charm in persuading citizens of other countries to accept the vaccine. No leader of any first world, democratic country is going to risk excess, deaths and a trashed economy supplying countries that won't even use the supply they have.

@madisonbridges that’s a good point.

I also wondered this : that maybe the countries who can support others SHOULD be vaccinated first - so they are healthy and put the resources in place so they CAN support other countries effectively. A bit like putting your own oxygen mask on first before helping your child??

I like Gordon Brown, he’s a lot smarter than people give him credit for.

I don’t understand. It won’t ever go away so how will it slow the pandemic? If anything natural immunity in SA has ended it quicker for them

@Thievesoil - to get from pandemic to endemic.

The vaccine is our best defence to ensure hospitals can function across all services.