Coronavirus: World Health Organization Warns About Vaccine Selfishness

There's a lot of debating about how vaccines should be distributed and about fear of people jumping ahead of others. For example, in the United States, there is a fear that the wealthy will jump the line. Of course, that same fear can apply to the world. In that situation, the United States is wealthy when compared to much of the rest of the world. I addressed this concern back in early December.

As vaccinations are starting to be administered, the WHO is warning about this inequity. Reuters (Jan18) reports on this topic: 

The world is on the brink of “catastrophic moral failure” in sharing COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday, urging countries and manufacturers to spread doses more fairly around the world.

. . . [WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] said more than 39 million vaccine doses had been administered in 49 higher-income countries whereas just 25 doses had been given in one poor country.

A delegate from Burkina Faso, on behalf of the African group, expressed concern at the meeting that a few countries had “hoovered up” most of the supplies.

Now I'm not sure how much faith we should put in the WHO due to how they conducted themselves at the start of this pandemic. And who can forget the below interview exchange regarding Taiwan.

Yet, they have a point. The country getting only 25 doses isn't named, but put that into context to how liberals were condemning President Trump for not hitting his 20 million dose target by the end of December.

I do think there are a couple items we need to keep in mind when it comes to vaccine distribution.

First, Pfizer and Moderna are two of the vaccines that have gotten approval in the United States and Europe. We know that both of these vaccines require storage at very low temperatures. We knew from the start that those vaccines would be difficult to distribute in poorer countries due to a lack of storage capacity. It is likely that the AstraZeneca vaccine is more appropriate for poorer countries, which can be stored at normal refrigerated temperatures.

Second, yes, we have to be fair, but we also have to recognize that Africa has a population of around 1.2 billion and yet has less than 100,000 deaths. Compare those death numbers to the United States and Europe. It isn't even close. So though it seems unfair when it comes to wealth, it does appear fair when it comes to where the pandemic is the worse. The larger question might be in regards to South America and if they are getting an appropriate share of the vaccines. 

Now could Africa have far higher number of deaths related to COVID-19? Most likely yes, but I also haven't read anything to date that indicates that hospitals are being over-whelmed across the continent (South Africa being an exception).

Third, though the current spread of the virus in Africa appears to be limited to the country of South Africa and various North African countries, that might not last much longer. As I wrote here, there does appear to be evidence that the virus is gaining strength in Africa.

Fourth, I have heard arguments that President Trump failed the nation when Pfizer asked the United States if it wanted to buy additional doses and the US declined. Put that into context to what the WHO is saying about wealthy nations grabbing the lion's share of vaccine doses. Now I'm not saying that the Trump administration declined the doses due to their consideration of poorer nations, but on the other hand, grabbing those doses might have been considered selfish.

I say we definitely need to keep in mind poorer countries. I'm not sure they deserve priority at the moment just based on deaths, but we definitely need to focus on ramping up production of vaccines not just for the wealthy countries, but for the poorer ones, as well.