Donations to poor countries are often a failure
In April 2020, the COVAX project was set up. This is a global collaboration to facilitate equitable access to vaccines. The goal was for at least 20% of the population to be vaccinated in each country. But today only 7% of the population of low-income countries has been vaccinated against 75% in high-income countries.
Why ? First, because the companies first deliver the vaccines to the rich countries. They ordered the majority of the doses available. Then, because vaccine hesitancy also affects poor countries. These countries are aware that vaccines given by rich countries are often less effective. This is the case of AstraZeneca or the Serum Institute of India.
Faced with the Omicron variant, the future of these two vaccines is uncertain. The growing demand for messenger RNA vaccines will also have a negative impact on the arrival of vaccines in countries with low incomes. In addition, the doses that end up arriving in poor countries often have a very short expiry date.
Europe must stop its hypocrisy on vaccine inequalities.
This makes logistics extremely complex to manage. Many countries then have to destroy millions of doses of vaccine. This is what happened in Nigeria, as demonstrated by a Le Monde newspaper survey : 1 million doses were thrown away at the end of 2021. All in an open landfill.
Another problem: the conditions for being able to give doses are often constrained by the rules of the suppliers. Pharmaceutical laboratories must therefore grant their written authorization before the transfer of vaccines to beneficiary countries. This wastes a lot of time in the donation process.