President of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Ankobea has described developed countries as being selfish for stockpiling COVID-19 vaccines, while developing nations have limited access to the vaccines.
He notes, the developed countries have gone to the extent of breaking the COVAX agreement which was to see to the equal distribution of the vaccines to developing countries, “but the developed countries have acquired a bulk of these vaccines, leaving developing countries exposed. Some of these developed countries have vaccinated as much as 50 to 70 percent of their population but some African countries have not even vaccinated up to 5 percent of their population.
To him, the COVID-19 pandemic cuts across the world and is not just affecting the citizens in developed countries alone. He argues that if the developed countries keep stockpiling vaccines to the detriment of developing countries, the COVID-19 pandemic will be around for a long time, and not spare them too.
“They need to look at the bigger picture and make sure developing countries get equal access to the vaccines. Until COVID-19 is eradicated globally, no one will be safe. Citizens in these developed countries travel a lot and imagine them traveling to develop countries where they virus still persists. Imagine what will happen. They will obviously take the virus back to their home countries and what would’ve been the essence of them stockpiling the vaccines for themselves,” he stated.
Dr. Frank Ankobea made this known in an interview with Sefah-Danquah on the Happy Morning Show.
To him most of these developing countries have not been proactive in stockpiling vaccines “they have simply been selfish. If every country had an equal share of the vaccines as agreed, COVID-19 could’ve been eradicated by the close of 2021. The World Health Organization (WHO) now believes the COVID-19 pandemic will run into 2022 because the developed countries have stockpiled the vaccines. The developed countries have been shortsighted and have not thought of the long term effect of the actions.”
The Covid pandemic will “go on for a year longer than it needs to” because poorer countries are not getting the vaccines they need, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
Dr Bruce Aylward, senior leader at the WHO, said it meant the COVID-19 crisis could “easily drag on deep into 2022.”
Less than 5% of Africa’s population have been vaccinated, compared to 40% on most other continents.
The original idea behind Covax was that all countries would be able to acquire vaccines from its pool, including wealthy ones. But most G7 countries decided to hold back once they started making their own one-to-one deals with pharmaceutical companies.
The vast majority of COVID-19 vaccines overall have been used in high-income or upper-middle-income countries. Africa accounts for just 2.6% of doses administered globally.
