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What’s most amazing is how widely accepted it is that this is how it has to be. That we’re right to hoard vaccines for ourselves. That lives in the Global South matter less.
Some important context here:
1) Apparently this map doesn't include China's vaccine, which is destined for more Global South countries. @TheEIU has yet to confirm that but seems a pretty bad omission if so.
1) Apparently this map doesn't include China's vaccine, which is destined for more Global South countries. @TheEIU has yet to confirm that but seems a pretty bad omission if so.
2) Yes, the US and Europe were particularly badly hit (largely because of their own failure to respond in deference to capital and knowing they could buy up vaccines!) and most of SSA wasn't, but no, this map isn't an exact fit for COVID impact.
Large swathes of Latin America, MENA, Western Asia, South Africa, and more have been hit hard and aren't getting the vaccine early. That's a lot of people!
Meanwhile plenty that haven't been hit hard (Australia, South Korea, Iceland, etc) *are* getting vaccine early. Why those?
Meanwhile plenty that haven't been hit hard (Australia, South Korea, Iceland, etc) *are* getting vaccine early. Why those?
3) The US in particular has refused to join multilateral efforts to coordinate production and distribution which would have made this more equitable, and rich countries *are* buying up all the doses. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/rich-countries-hoarding-vaccine-report/story?id=74623521
4) On top of all of this, the Global South has been desperately hit by the economic crash, and the North has failed to do anything more than the bare minimum to help. https://globalcovidresponse.org/
So yes maybe not as much of an injustice as first glance at the map would imply, but it's still... uh... not good!
5) Oh, and notice which countries support a waiver on WTO intellectual property constraints on a vaccine. Seems like if this was just about there being a limited supply and the North needing it more thean maybe the North would support the production of generics...
