From the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been irrefutable reasons for designing a global vaccination programme that put need ahead of geography. There is no good reason for vaccinating a healthy 25-year-old in Europe ahead of an intensive-care nurse in Africa. Admirable efforts have been made to mitigate the effect of vaccine nationalism, notably through Covax – a global public/private effort to incentivise more rational distribution. By late January, 39 million doses of vaccine had been administered in at least 49 wealthy countries. Already South Africa has flagged concerns about a local variant’s ability to resist the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Source: The Irish Times February 11, 2021 18:56 UTC