Rich countries only shared 14% of COVID-19 vaccine doses promised to poorer nations: report – CBC

‘There just aren’t enough vaccines being made,’ says the policy lead on vaccine inequality for Oxfam Canada

Oct 22, 2021

A coalition of human rights organizations lays the blame on pharmaceutical companies and rich countries like Canada for contributing to vaccine inequality around the world.

In a new report, the People’s Vaccine Alliance — which includes Oxfam, ActionAid and Amnesty International — found that only one in seven COVID-19 vaccine doses promised to low-income countries were actually delivered.

The report found 261 million doses, or 14 per cent, of the 1.8 billion doses were delivered — and only 1.3 per cent of people in those countries are fully vaccinated.

“It just seems so wrong and so morally reprehensible to have huge swaths of the world unvaccinated just because they have less money,” Brittany Lambert, policy lead on the vaccine inequality file for Oxfam Canada, told As It Happens host Carol Off.

“And for those [pharmaceutical] companies to be able to, you know, continue prioritizing the wealthy countries that are going to pay lots of money for these vaccines… People in developing countries don’t have any less right to life and to health than the rest of us.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.6219522/rich-countries-only-shared-14-of-covid-19-vaccine-doses-promised-to-poorer-nations-report-1.6219969