Next Africa: Falling behind on vaccines

[Deeq A.]

Where to now for vaccines in Africa?

That’s the question many governments on the continent must be asking. This week AstraZeneca said its Covid-19 vaccine provides little protection against mild forms of the disease caused by a variant of the virus first identified in South Africa.

That mutation is now dominant in the country and is spreading rapidly across the region and further afield.

^{A visitor receives a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the Covid-19 vaccination center in Berlin on Feb. 10.
Photographer: Kay Nietfeld /DPA}

AstraZeneca’s is by far the cheapest of the shots. It also makes up the bulk of the supplycurrently available to Covax, the initiative to improve poor nations’ access to vaccines, which much of Africa is relying on. A separate supply deal secured by the African Union is also partly reliant on the company.

The World Health Organisation has urged countries to keep using the vaccine because it may protect against severe disease and death caused by the variant. Still, there’s no proof and South Africa has  paused plans to use it.

Across the continent, there have been mixed reactions. Zambia says it won’t be rushed into choosing a vaccine, Mauritius will conduct a study into citizens who have taken the AstraZeneca shot and Malawi’s health minister is optimistic it will work.

There are few alternatives. Vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are effective against the mutation but are most costly and in short supply, compared with AstraZeneca’s. Those made by Johnson & Johnson and Novavax appear effective but are yet to be approved.

While China and Russia are pledging donations of their own vaccines to African countries, there is as yet no data on their performance against the variant.

Already by far the least vaccinated continent, with fewer than 50,000 doses administered, Africa looks set to fall further behind.

Source: Bloomberg 

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