Decisions by rich countries to apply booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine while so many people in Africa remain without a vaccine “threaten the promise of a better tomorrow” for the continent, said the Africa director of the World Organization of the Cheers on Thursday. “By hoarding vaccines, some rich countries ridicule the concept of vaccination equity.”
Matshidiso Moeti and other African health authorities, as well as the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had spoken out against booster doses when just 2% of 1.3 billion Africans are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Moeti said the most recent wave in Africa stabilizes and more doses reach the continent, but “Africa has a headwind” if the United States and other rich countries decide to apply booster doses.
The situation in Africa remains “very fragile” as the highly infectious delta variant predominates in most of the 54 countries on the continent, he added. More than 7.3 million cases and 186,000 confirmed deaths have been recorded on a continent where health systems are oxygen starved.
US health authorities announced on Wednesday their plans to apply booster doses to the entire population in the face of the delta wave surge and signs that vaccines are beginning to lose efficacy.
Moeti told reporters that he was not sure that the booster doses in the United States came from supplies destined for African countries, but “hopefully not.”
He mentioned the “already very unequal situation” of vaccine stocks in the world and called for the development of vaccination campaigns in Africa, which is far behind the rest of the world.
Moeti stressed that while rich countries have applied on average more than 103 doses per 100 people, in Africa there are only six.
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