Vaccine disparity hits refugees even harder
This blog has been written by Madiha Raza, a supporter of Just Treatment.
My name is Madiha Raza and I work in global communications for the International Rescue Committee. My current portfolio consists of Africa and Yemen and I'm based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Our work is based around providing assistance to displaced communities across Africa and Yemen by supporting people impacted by conflicts, droughts and other catastrophes. I have seen firsthand how COVID has exacerbated these already precarious living conditions.
In many of these areas, the dispensing of routine immunisations is already difficult. Ensuring that displaced people were vaccinated against COVID was a challenge on a whole new level. There was no predictable supply due to uncertain pledges to COVAX - created to supposedly ensure global supply - not being honoured by vaccine manufacturers and governments alike.
The health infrastructure in many of these countries are already extremely weak, where delivering last mile immunizations or immunizations to remote or hard to reach places is sometimes impossible, especially in the context of needing to store vaccine vials under certain temperatures. When vaccinations did arrive, they had such a short shelf life that many countries did not have enough time to dispense them. There is lack of engagement with organisations on the ground who were delivering the vaccine in the absence of national health infrastructure.
“The irony is that health clinics in Africa...have dealt with the Ebola virus and are therefore well equipped to cope with contagious diseases and scaling up of isolation units.”
The irony is that health clinics in Africa - for example in the DRC - have dealt with the Ebola virus and are therefore well equipped to cope with contagious diseases and scaling up of isolation units. They just lacked the supply of vaccines which, if given at the correct time, could have saved thousands of lives. It feels like many wealthier nations had and have still not realised that until all of us are safe and vaccinated, none of us are safe. New variants will keep emerging in communities where large swathes of people have not been vaccinated.
Across Africa we have seen a number of issues arise as a result of the pandemic. A recent report by IRC showed a 75% increase in Gender Based Violence across 15 African countries that we interviewed women in. In some countries children were out of school for over two years. The longer that displaced people in these areas do not have access to vaccines, the longer it’ll take for the world to go back to it pre-Covid safety.
We cannot afford to be nationalistic about the vaccine. We saw the USA procure 200% of the supply that they needed whilst vaccine coverage across Africa is barely at 12% . This unequal reality feeds the mistrust that strengthens the vaccine scepticism that is so prevalent in our work around vaccine delivery. Pharmaceutical companies and high income countries need to work together to ensure everyone is treated equally when it comes to eligibility and access to the COVID vaccine.
Once again - until all of us are vaccinated, none of us are safe.