Vaccination Process in Underdeveloped Countries

Most of the developed and developing countries started their vaccination programme and flattened the curve of Covid19 pandemic growth. But the same can not be true in underdeveloped countries. Inequal availability of Covid19 vaccines between rich and poor countries caused a lot of concern for WHO. Most of those countries which has no or less number of Covid vaccines are located in the African continent or Sub-Saharan region. Less number of Covid vaccination in poor countries is a challenge for WHO. WHO is very much concerned about the healthcare programme of poor nations. The count of low-income countries hovering around 67 and 90% population of these countries are defenceless against the sudden blitzkrieg of Covid19 pandemic. These countries can not avail of the costly Covid19 vaccine and no producer companies will share the legal right to others to produce the covid vaccine. Oxford and AstraZeneca lone horse in the melee standing alone and took a pledge to share their 64% Covid19 vaccine with low income countries. Despite the vow, the vaccine will reach 18% of the downtrodden population. If this trend continues, the venomous impact of the Covid19 will cause billions of deaths, only transcendental meditation  will save their lives. The 67 countries only see a ray of hope in the Covax programme, an outcome of a collaborative effort between WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. WHO had signed an accord with AstraZeneca for 170 million doses, with Johnson & Johnson for 500 million doses and Serum Institute of India for 200 million doses.The above mentioned accord will resolve the non-availability of Covid vaccines in low income countries.

Availability of Vaccines in Developing Countries

The Sanofi-GSK will provide the rest of the 200 million doses. The deal will cover 900 million doses, a silver line in slitless darkness for low-income countries. If poor income countries fail to curb the Covid19 pandemic, it will plunge the whole world into misery, as coronavirus is capable of spreading to its tentacles from underdeveloped countries to developed countries. Many experts placed AstraZeneca on a higher podium than the rest of the Covid19 vaccine for its benevolent features. AstraZeneca is cheaper and easy to restore compared to other Covid19 vaccines, giving licence to other companies around the world to produce the vaccine. Thus AstraZeneca can be called manna from heaven for downtrodden people. The same can not be true for other vaccine producer companies. The WHO president Tedros Adhanom stated that unequal distribution of corona vaccine will spread inequality in the world. The developed countries contain 14% of the total population of the world, while they reserved 53% of the  Covid19 vaccine. If we fail to tame down the coronavirus globally, it will have a drastic impact on trade and industrial production, as lockdown will become the biggest barrier against normalisation. 

There are few low-income countries yet to start their vaccination process. These countries are Nicaragua, Libya, Madagascar, Korea, Cuba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Eritrea, Tanzania. According to WHO, 130 nations of the world yet to start their vaccination drive. A couple of developed countries like the USA, Japan, New Zealand, UK, Canada, Singapore started their Covid  vaccination in December 2020.

Quite a few African countries do not have Covid19 vaccines. The main barrier for these countries is the lack of financial power. Their number hovering around 131. South Africa blocked the Covid vaccination programme as AstraZeneca failed to prove its efficacy against mild and moderate infections. WHO has taken the responsibility to distributes the Covid19 vaccines among low-income countries. Still country like Nicaragua is waiting for vaccines. Nicaragua is not the only country in the African continent waiting for the vial. Countries like Libya, Madagascar do not receive any vaccine in their medical arsenal to withstand the viral impact of coronavirus. Few African nations already started vaccination drive apart of South Africa, others are Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, the Sey Chelles, Rwanda, Mauritius, Zimbabwe.

If low-income countries failed to start their vaccination drive against Covid19 pandemic, will not only invoke catastrophe for the world, also grind the world economy. Even developed countries will not be spared from the economic conflagration. Low-income countries will stretch the lockdown for prolong time to evade the catastrophic impact of coronavirus, which will be dealt a terrible jolt to the world economy. As per the renowned economist, the loss will be $9 trillion, which is 60% of the total economic strength of the world second-largest economy China.

The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic forced India to block the export of Covid vaccine to other countries. The South Asian countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh pledged developed countries like the US, Japan, Denmark for the Covid19 vaccine to recover themselves from the deep gulf. On the other hand, developed countries reserved most of the vaccine produced by leading pharmaceutical companies. China shares Sinopharm doses with the above-mentioned countries, which is not enough. The sudden decision of the Indian government to block the export of AstraZeneca plunged a couple of African nations into crisis. These nations with their dilapidated economy, feeble infrastructure failed to produce the Covid-19 vaccine. Africa is the continent received the least number of Covid-19 vaccine. The dwindling supply of the Covid-19 vaccine forced many African nations to stalled their vaccination drives and WHO does not expect the African continent will complete their vaccination drive before the end of 2023.

The long-standing impact of lockdown will muzzle the growth of developed and underdeveloped countries. The world economy will suffer a $9 trillion loss and most developed countries of the world will be at the receiving end. It is the onus of the developed countries to help poor countries to recover from the quagmire of Covid19 pandemic and save the world from disaster.

Keywords:

Covid vaccination in poor countries,
vaccination in poor countries,
Which countries do not have Covid19 vaccine,          
vaccination inequality between rich and poor countries,    
availability of vaccines in developing countries

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