On this April 7, Global Health Day, the International Week of Anti-Imperialist Struggle is organizing an international campaign asking to stop the medical apartheid, abolish the patents on the COVID-19-vaccines and, in this way, guarantee free vaccines for all.
Today’s global pandemic politics is dominated by a vaccine nationalism that is increasing global health, social and economic inequalities. A few numbers clarify these tendencies: The Global North, with less than 14 percent of the world’s population, has secured three times more vaccines than their population, while poorer countries will not have vaccines for their citizens before 2023. Till today, only 1.5 percent of the world’s population of 7.7 billion people have been vaccinated, 80 percent of them are from only ten countries of the Global North. During 2021, 70 countries in the Global South will only be able to vaccinate one in ten people.
These global inequalities do not mean that within the countries of the Global North all are in the same boat either, on the contrary: marginalized, vulnerable and precarious working people, especially women and migrants, still remain excluded from many national vaccination programs.
*The views of the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Africa Speaks 4 Africa or its editorial team.