Opinion | Why much of the world is facing a Covid-19 vaccine famine

The Covax Facility and richer countries unfortunately conflate fundraising with distribution, and the countries that provide the funds are not subject to the same distributive system

There must be a stronger focus on ensuring vaccines are manufactured in countries beyond rich nations, so each can practise vaccine nationalism

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People arrive to receive a dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, provided through the Covax initiative, at the Barrio Obrero public hospital in Asuncion, Paraguay, on March 26. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:45am, 22 Jun 2021Updated: 5:45am, 22 Jun 2021

The recent G7 summit agreement to donate 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses to poor countries has elicited disappointment from many development organisations and leaders, for two reasons. The first is moral: poor countries need help, charity or solidarity from first-world countries and even emerging economies. The second argument is about self-interest – that no one is safe until everyone is safe, given the risk of outbreaks and mutations crossing borders.

However, there is another reason for disappointment – if we realise that most countries in the world are facing a vaccine famine. Africa’s 55 countries, for instance, have so far received vaccines, both purchased and free – vaccines that could protect at best 2 per cent of the region’s population.

Characterising a lack of vaccine access as a famine is important because it illuminates a key point that Amartya Sen, the Nobel-Prize-winning development economist, explained in his seminal 1981 book Poverty and Famines: famines imply starvation, but starvation does not imply famine. When people are hungry, it is not necessarily because of food shortages. It could be because the distribution of the food or the money to buy food is not working.

This is important when it comes to vaccines. The fact is, there is not – yet – a global vaccine shortage. The World Health Organization has suggested that 11 billion vaccine doses would be sufficient for the world to achieve herd immunity, while current projections suggest 12 billion doses can be produced by the end of 2021.

Indeed, G7 countries are enjoying a relative feast – on average they have fully vaccinated 33 per cent of their population and there are internal debates about when children, the least vulnerable to Covid-19, should receive jabs.

So why are other countries facing a vaccine famine? As mentioned above, Sen’s argument is that famine arises from poor distribution. This has two key implications for the handling of pandemics, and other global problems.