The vaccine gap is bad for the world

Of the Covid-19 vaccine doses given globally, roughly three-quarters have gone to only 10 countries. At least 30 countries have not yet injected a single person.

Many poorer nations could wait years for their shots, a delay that scientists warn could haunt all countries if the continued spread of the coronavirus allows it to mutate in ways that undermine vaccines.

Many countries were relying on the global vaccine program known as Covax, which was created around the idea that all would buy vaccines through a single mechanism, but dozens of wealthy nations went straight to pharmaceutical companies and elbowed the program out of the way.

The toll: Already, unvaccinated doctors and nurses have died this year in countries including Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, depleting health systems that can ill afford to lose any more workers.

Case study: Even in Kenya, one of Africa’s wealthier nations, the first vaccine shipment arrived only this month, later than anticipated and with only a quarter of the doses promised. No one knows when the next batch will arrive. In the best-case scenario, Kenya is expecting to vaccinate only 30 percent of its people, or about 16 million out of almost 50 million, by the middle of 2023.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In other developments:

A U.S. trial of AstraZeneca’s vaccine found that it provided strong protection with no serious side effects. The company will seek approval from drug regulators, but the U.S. may not need the shot.
Taiwan, one of the few places in the world to successfully contain the coronavirus from the beginning of the pandemic, kicked off its vaccination drive on Monday.
President Vladimir Putin was set to receive one of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday, ending an unexplained delay in getting inoculated.
The New York Times