In the fight against the corona pandemic, vaccination rates are still negligibly low in numerous countries around the world. The goal of the World Health Organization (WHO) to vaccinate at least ten percent of the population in every country by the end of September has not been achieved, as current WHO figures show. In a few dozen countries, mainly in Africa, the vaccination rate is significantly lower. The WHO called on rich countries to dispense more vaccine doses.
“We need a tough global commitment today that at least 40 percent of the population in every country will be vaccinated by the end of the year,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week. By the middle of next year it should be 70 percent. According to WHO data, only 0.15 vaccine doses per 100 inhabitants were administered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 0.87 in Chad and 1.5 in Madagascar. For comparison: In Germany there were so far 128.49 vaccine doses per 100 inhabitants, in Canada a good 147, in China almost 146. Most vaccines are administered in two doses. At the beginning of September, the European Disease Agency (ECDC) said that it did not currently see any urgent indication for booster vaccinations for completely vaccinated people. The authority referred to the available data. For some people with a weakened immune system, however, such an additional vaccination should be considered, it is said.
The WHO has long criticized the fact that rich countries store vaccine doses for a booster shot, while millions of people around the world are urgently waiting for a first vaccination. The rich countries have promised more than a billion cans as a donation. However, less than a fifth of this has so far been made available. According to the WHO, two billion doses are immediately needed to supply poor countries. Tedros appealed to companies and governments to enable more production through technology transfer.
The German Development Minister Gerd Müller warned last Sunday of increasing disadvantages in poor countries when it comes to corona vaccines. “Rich countries have bought additional vaccines from the world market to enable third-party vaccinations, while over 90 percent of Africans have not even had the first vaccination,” said the CSU politician of the Funke media group, according to a preliminary report. The goal of the international vaccine initiative Covax of making two billion vaccine doses available to people in poor countries by the end of the year can no longer be achieved, said Müller. So far, Covax has only distributed over 300 million vaccine doses.
In addition to the lack of a vaccine, capacity problems are also responsible for the low vaccination rates in many countries. According to WHO figures from August, around 1.7 million vaccine doses were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, 1.4 million vaccine doses were then returned and given to other countries because the health system would not have been able to give them before the expiry date. Conspiracy theories are also circulating in many poorer countries and there is little trust in vaccines.
(S E R V I C E – WHO-Daten unter: http://dpaq.de/a5amN)