So, South Africa (the place of my birth), is in the news today. The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine was found to have a lower efficacy in SA (just under 50%) than in Britain (almost 90%).

Which got me thinking. How is the world doing in ensuring that people in SA get vaccinated? 1/n

Vaccine manufacturers in the rich world (the ones that supply rich nations) did trials in South Africa.

And then—surprise!—rich countries have been able to give tens of millions of people their shots but ZERO South Africans have received theirs. 2/n https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30401-X/fulltext

I'm as excited as the next American/Brit that we now have another vaccine that will be given to Americans & Brits (the Novavax vaccine). But guess when South Africa is predicted to achieve widespread vaccination coverage?

Mid-2022 https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/01/28/vaccine-nationalism-means-that-poor-countries-will-be-left-behind

I totally get the reassuring tweets about the vaccine news from SA (heck, I've even sent some myself). We say "don't worry, efficacy is great in Britain & in any case Novavax will quickly reformulate to improve efficacy against variants."

Meanwhile: ZERO PEOPLE VACCINATED IN SA

"But COVAX!" I hear you say.

Yes, true, SA joined COVAX & so can purchase doses from this facility [disclosure: I was in a working group that helped design COVAX]. But SA is being asked to pay the same amount for a dose as a rich nation! That's a tough ask right now.

5/n

In the rich world we've decided: we don't want this pandemic to end until 2023 at the earliest. That's a policy choice we made. The pandemic isn't over until we reach *global* vaccine herd immunity (maybe 2023?). 6/n

Rich nations have spoken lovely words ("we must make vaccines a global public good"). But these are lies. Look at their actions. It's a vaccine grab. It is me first, me only, hoarding. Many have bypassed COVAX, bypassed global sharing. 7/n

Why the hell aren't we sharing the IP, sharing the know-how, globalizing the manufacturing? If we can't share & globalize now, in the worst pandemic in 100 years, what does that say about us?

Why did we stop giving a s**t about global justice & an end to the global pandemic?/