Africa’s Vaccine Problem

DR. AYOADE ALAKIJA, CO-CHAIR, AFRICA VACCINE DELIVERY ALLIANCE: The COVAX shortfall is a disaster for — not just for the developing world. It is — or for Africa. It is a disaster for the entire planet. You mentioned earlier global cooperation and fault lines that COVID has laid back when you were doing the previous segment about climate change in the sense of urgency. There was — almost checked myself. I thought I had – – I had missed my segment, and you were introducing the segment on COVID, because the analogy is perfect. It — so it’s perfect having those two things next to each other. Climate change is urgent. COVID is even more urgent. And COVID, as your previous guest said, has shown the climate change is urgent. But what we cannot say, this sense of otherism, this sense of us and them, the developing countries and the high-income countries of the world, that perhaps not having vaccines in the developing countries doesn’t affect the others, is not — it cannot be allowed to stand. There is no us and them in this situation. There is no developing country, low-middle-income country or low-income country and a high-income country. We are one. In this moment of this pandemic, we are one planet, one global community, one people. And we are all sharing the same air with the same microbe. It is a disaster for us all. And we need to get vaccines to people across the entire world, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, as quickly and as urgently as possible.

GOLODRYGA: It’s such an important point, as we see the E.U. start to open up travel for those who have been vaccinated, because it’s happening in the backdrop of what we’re seeing, the devastation in India, new variants. And the key takeaway is that no one’s going to be safe, fully safe, even if they’re vaccinated, unless every country in the world has access to vaccines. And as a ripple effect from what we’re seeing transpire in India and the shortfall in vaccine production, the Kenyan health minister said that they may probably have to switch from AstraZeneca to Johnson & Johnson. Listen to what he said when explaining that.

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MUTAHI KAGWE, KENYAN HEALTH MINISTER: Given the difficulties that the Indian people are going through and the population of India, it is very unlikely that AstraZeneca is going to be the vaccine of choice for the African continent going forward. It is very likely that we are going to discuss and agree on Johnson & Johnson.

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GOLODRYGA: Do you agree with him? Is that the right decision for them to make right now?

ALAKIJA: Well, Bianna, we have already made a decision,not based on whether AstraZeneca is the right vaccine, because I don’t want to get into that conversation. I want to state that every vaccine that has been proven to be safe and effective must be taken once one is given the opportunity. But he is correct, in that we have at the Africa Union, which I chair, co- chair the African Union Vaccine Delivery Alliance, at that level, at a continental level, we have had to go to Johnson & Johnson and actually have orders in place or options in place.