Governments that have not yet put in place the necessary infrastructure to deploy a mass vaccination campaign must seize this moment to fully prepare. Although COVAX (the Covid-19 global access initiative, co-led by Gavi, the WHO and CEPI) has now started delivering its first shipments to the continent and bilateral donations are trickling in, large-scale shipments are not expected for months.
1 This global divide is partly because vaccine nationalism among high-income countries has boxed many lower- and middle-income countries out of access to the initial limited global supply. In comparison, Africa has administered just 0.4 doses per 100 people on a continent of 1.3 billion, with Morocco accounting for the bulk of those doses. Latin America and Asia have dispensed 4.7 and 2.6, respectively. In terms of doses administered per 100 people, North America leads the world with 17.4, followed by Europe with 10.2. This complexity is especially challenging in sub-Saharan Africa, where infrastructure critical to vaccine deployment, like cold-chain refrigeration and digital data collection, is more limited.įor most countries in Africa, procuring enough vaccines has been an added challenge. But those efforts will be futile if the public is uninformed or unwilling to receive the jab. It will involve strategic and tailored delivery structures enabled by digital technology and data systems. The rollout will require a vastly coordinated and sustained effort among diverse actors. The end-to-end logistics necessary for a population-wide vaccine campaign are highly complex. Yet, like with vaccine development, vaccine deployment is of a scale unlike anything undertaken previously. The work done to produce a vaccine cannot be undermined by lack of preparedness. The unprecedented efforts by scientists must be met equally with unprecedented efforts by governments when it comes to vaccination rollout. It ends with successful vaccine deployment. However, the pandemic does not end with successful vaccine development. This remarkable feat is laudable and has given the world much-needed hope. Moreover, there are not one or two viable vaccines, but nearly ten and counting, three of which have officially received Emergency Use Listing (EUL) from the World Health Organisation (WHO) with others under authorisation in a number of countries. With extraordinary resources and dedication, researchers have produced in a matter of 12 months what normally takes years, if not decades. In a race to save lives and livelihoods, the scientific and medical communities around the world undertook an unprecedented endeavour when they set out to create a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19.
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