COVID: Developing countries suffer, as richer countries hoard on vaccines

The U.K. has been repeatedly criticised for hoarding vaccine supplies, which have threatened the balance of healthcare amenities in the developing countries around the world.

Experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) have termed this situation as a ‘disease now fundamentally of poor people and poor nations,’ due to an unfair chance given to fight COVID.

Pandemic of the poor

The WHO reported 5,413 deaths, across the world, in the past 24 hours.

The U.K. has been condemned for taking a huge gamble in ordering excess vaccines to fight a singular variant of the virus. Which means that once there is a new strain to combat, the older vaccines will be redundant. Surprisingly, this has pushed the developing countries, such as Africa, to only receive a fraction of the entire vaccination supply.

Anna Marriott, health policy adviser for Oxfam and policy adviser to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

Pharmaceutical corporations have de-prioritised developing countries, including the continent of Africa.

Rich countries have pushed themselves to the front of the vaccine queue by willingly paying higher than necessary prices.

Africa’s vaccine supply amounts to less than one percent of the world's total supply. Only six percent of their people have been vaccinated. Whereas, according to reports, the UK has already given booster shots to more than 22% of persons aged 12 and over. Further, at least two vaccine shots have been administered to an estimated 68.6%of the population.

Pfizer pills to the rescue

In such dire times, the Pfizer pills will be deployed to over half of the world's population, living in the top 95 poor countries. It will be available at a subsidised rate to ensure equal distribution of healthcare facilities throughout the world.

The antiviral pills can be a game changer in defeating COVID. It will be considerably easier to disseminate it, because a tablet can be taken at home rather than intravenously administered medications.