Many are celebrating the fact that the end of 2020 has seen the arrival of COVID vaccines from pharmaceutical manufacturers, and rightly so. Indeed, the U.S. has already secured claims on as many as 1.5 billion doses of approved and potential vaccines, while the European Union has locked up nearly two billion doses — enough to vaccinate all of their citizens and then some. Canada is in line to receive millions of vaccine doses early in the new year. However, reports indicate that many poor countries could be left waiting until 2024 to fully vaccinate their populations, if they’re lucky. In addition, access to vaccines is not based on need. It’s based on the ability to pay and the need for pharmaceutical companies (primarily located in the advanced economies) to waive traditional protections on intellectual property, thereby allowing poor countries to make affordable versions of the vaccines. Unfortunately, the work of the World Trade Organization (W.T.O.) and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) to provide needed aid to poor countries has been blocked by the Trump administration. On top of which, the Trump administration has also withdrawn financial and moral support for the vital work of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.).
This has left the masses of people in poor countries with no short-term access to vaccines, in economic chaos and with rising public debt. This global pandemic will result in existing economic inequalities between the have and have-not countries becoming even greater. Some will even argue that the ravages of the pandemic in poor countries, largely unchecked by vaccines, could limit economic fortunes globally. Governments in the wealthy countries must at some point shore up the assistance necessary to support health care systems and vulnerable populations in poor countries. The Canadian government recently announced that it is part of a global movement to ensure that available surplus COVID vaccines will be offered to vulnerable countries as soon as possible. When and by how much are two questions that immediately come to mind!
One can only hope that the incoming Biden administration will quickly proceed to address this important issue and lend the full support of the American nation to such organizations as the W.T.O., I.M.F. and W.H.O. in combating this global pandemic. Without the full American participation, the ability to ensure that sufficient COVID vaccines are available to vulnerable countries becomes a mute issue. Just as the pandemic created a health crisis in wealthy countries, it has created an even bigger one in the poorer countries. Unless the current situation changes, it is predicted that many poor countries will no doubt be left waiting until 2024 to fully vaccinate their populations. If true, this could become the worst international tragedy of this century.
FROLITICKS 
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