Hira Bahadur Thapa

AS the deadlier second wave of coronavirus grips many parts of the globe, the vaccination gap exposes unending unevenness of the pandemic. Vaccination is a health imperative because it is the most effective way to fight the virus. While many rich nations continue stockpiling vaccine doses in excess of their requirements, a large majority in low-income countries have no access to vaccines. The contrast between the haves and have-nots could hardly be starker.
The countries in Latin America and South Asia are the hardest hit. Rates of infection and death tolls have exponentially surged. Woefully, both these regions have the largest concentration of poverty. The most affected countries have poor health infrastructures. Coronavirus presents an enormous economic challenge. Shutting down businesses adds the pains to the poor communities. The poor people do not have the luxury for skipping work even for a single day. They have no savings and are likely to starve unless the governments provide them relief.

Humanitarian crisis
The wealthy nations are delivering economic assistance to such communities because they can afford it. When infections go down due to vaccine rollout, people can start their economic activities as restrictions are removed. Life slowly comes back to normal in a rich nation like the US, where a significant number of people has received inoculation. Conversely, low-income countries lack vaccines and are facing humanitarian crisis to cope with new variants of virus. With more contagious virus spreading alarmingly these countries are in desperate need for vaccines. They do not manufacture vaccines and rely on exports or donations from the generous producers.
The infection in the second wave has been more lethal comparatively. Even a vaccine manufacturing nation like India is in dire condition, where daily infection cases have recorded 400,000 mark. Death tolls per day have been close to 4000. As a leading manufacturer of vaccines, India’s role in stemming the spread of pandemic is critical. Serum Institute of India is the biggest producer of vaccines. Many developing countries in South Asia and Africa are depending on Indian supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, which it has been producing in collaboration with AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Many countries are desperately waiting for the low-priced Indian vaccine exports. The country itself is mired in a great health crisis. Analysts predict that India’s vaccination rate is around 2 per cent though it has the world’s second largest population. Ripples from the Indian crisis are already felt in a number of countries dependent on it. Nepal is one of them where infection rate is staggeringly surging in the last few weeks.
At a time when Nepal, including other countries are such in urgent need of vaccines, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suspended exports of nearly all 2.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine produced daily by the Serum Institute of India. Though shocking, this decision is hardly surprising given the country’s difficulties. The Indian government has lobbied for foreign assistance as it is overwhelmed by daily rising infections and deaths.
Responding to India’s appeal for help fight the pandemic, the US has announced this week a slate of assistance measures, including vaccines, raw materials, rapid test and a tranche of the antiviral remdesivir, which received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2020 for treating COVID-19. This philanthropic gesture from the US merits commendation. Its unwillingness to share reasonable quantity of COVID-19 vaccines remaining unused in the country is perplexing.
US-manufactured Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been massively used in the country. One estimate says that almost fifty per cent of its population has received the first dose. All adults have now been eligible for receiving them. The administration of third vaccine produced by the American company Johnson & Johnson, has resumed after a pause triggered by the disclosure of its side effects. Scientists believe that cases of blood clots related to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are minimal.
Nepal has been facing the second wave of coronavirus, supposedly associated with new variants known as B.1.617 (Indian’s home grown) B.1.1.7, a variant that has spread widely in Britain and in the United States. Whichever variant may have played the role in raising Nepal’s current positivity rate of around 35 per cent, the world’s highest, the situation right now is certainly calamitous. The government has enforced curfews in several districts in order to prevent the transmission of virus and hopes to build necessary health infrastructures during the interim period. It has inoculated about 210,000 people so far with vaccines at its disposal. Vaccination drive has been on hold due to shortage of vaccines.

Unethical act
Nepal has not been delivered the Indian supplies for which it has already paid for understandable reasons. The percentage of vaccinated people in Nepal is very low. It is unlikely that this number will go up in the foreseeable future despite government’s initiative to procure vaccines from abroad. It is immoral for wealthy nations amassing abundant quantities of vaccines and be hesitant to share the extra supplies to other nations. The global shortage has been obscured by pockets of vaccine abundance in rich countries. Of late, the US has announced that it is going to share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to other countries. But that would be tantamount to a drop in the ocean as billions of people in the world need early vaccination.
Vaccine rollout is an issue of life and death. Some have argued that vaccination is universal human right. Sooner the rich nations with vaccines in abundance realise that shortage of vaccines threatens to upend progress against the pandemic, the better for all of us. Undisputedly, no one is safe until everyone is safe.

(Thapa was Foreign Relations Advisor to the Prime Minister in 2008-09. Thapahira17@gmail.com)