The World Health Organisation has warned that the world is creating “toxic conditions” for the spread of covid variants such as Omicron.
Rich countries hoarding global vaccine supplies are contributing to low vaccination rates in developing nations and are allowing variants to develop and spread largely unchecked around the world.
Experts say there is a link between the emergence of new variants and low vaccination rates, and new variants could keep emerging in countries that have low levels of protection against COVID-19.
The emergence of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant has been blamed in part on rich countries stockpiling vaccines and failing to heed months of repeated warnings about inequity in the developing world.
According to Our World in Data, only 5.7 per cent of people in low-income countries had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of 27 November, compared with 73.6 per cent of people in high-income countries.
Just 7.15 per cent of people in Africa were fully vaccinated, according to the data.
Campaign director for the End Covid For All campaign, Tim Costello, says rich countries have failed to share vaccine resources throughout the pandemic.
“Rich countries bought and ordered vaccines for five times our population. We had the money to buy them and secure that. That’s why the poor, particularly in Africa and elsewhere, missed out,” he said.
UNICEF Australia CEO, Tony Stuart agrees.
“The more we have unvaccinated parts of the world, the less safe we all are,” he said. “It was in everyone’s interest to eradicate polio. It’s in everyone’s interest to try to make sure we’re all vaccinated from COVID.”
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on rich countries to stop fuelling vaccine inequity.
“The emergence of the Omicron variant should be a wake-up call to the world that vaccine inequality cannot be allowed to continue. Until everyone is vaccinated, everyone will continue to be at risk,” he said.
Source – SBS News, Australia