Developing Countries Struggle to Obtain Coronavirus Vaccines

The coronavirus vaccine recently emerged in December of 2020 and was immediately purchased by nations that could afford it. Low to middle-income countries may need to wait much longer until they can get a hold of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to Medical News Today, in roughly 67 low to middle-income countries, 90% of residents will be unable to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.

When breaking the global distribution down to middle and low-income vaccinations, middle-income countries will most likely not be vaccinated until the fall of 2021, with mass vaccinations continuing throughout 2022. Low-income countries will still be vaccinating high-priority groups into early 2022, with mass vaccinations continuing throughout 2023 and perhaps into 2024, according to AXIOS. This will, as a result, slow down the race to eradicate the worldwide pandemic that is continuing to threaten people’s lives.

Countries like India, E.U member states and the U.S were each able to purchase billions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine, while some African countries were unable to purchase even 1 million doses.

“Rich countries have enough doses to vaccinate everyone nearly three times over, while poor countries don’t have enough even to reach health workers and people at risk,” People’s Vaccine Alliance member Dr. Monga Kamal Yanni told Medical News Today. 

Developing countries will rely on an element of the Act-Accelerator partnership, called COVAX, to distribute vaccines at minimal costs, according to The New York Times. International aid organizations such as the Red Cross might help facilitate vaccine distribution, and one future method in which poorer countries could potentially get access to vaccines earlier is by obtaining unused doses purchased by richer countries such as the U.S.

These countries will also have to rely on aid from wealthier nations to improve their economies, ultimately bringing them back to normal.

Article by Margaret Georgiev of Walter Johnson High School

Photo courtesy of Delta News Hub via Wikimedia Commons