SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Line of people waiting to receive the vaccine during the Phase 1 of the Covid-19 vaccination program at Mbagathi Hospital, in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 12, 2021. (Photo: Robert Bonet/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Critics Decry 'Preventable Mass Death' in Africa as Rich Nations 'Just Sit Back and Watch'
"Our priority is clear," said a top WHO official. "it's crucial that we swiftly get vaccines into the arms of Africans at high risk of falling seriously ill and dying of Covid-19."
Jun 08, 2021
Months into a debate at the World Trade Organization over suspending patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines in order to end the global pandemic, the delay has left Africa facing a third wave of deadly infections as countries across the continent confront dwindling supplies of vaccines.
As The Guardian reported Tuesday, eight countries have seen cases rise by more than 30% in the last week and officials have raised alarm over possible looming shortages of hospital beds and oxygen, unless the outbreaks can be brought under control.
"In this wave, the intensity of severe and critically ill Covid-19 patients, and deaths is higher than what we experienced in the first wave of the pandemic," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday.
"The EU has so far refused to engage in productive discussions on the proposal and continues to instead rally for voluntary measures by pharmaceutical corporations, which so far have shown limited success."
--Doctors Without Borders
The country has recorded nearly 53,000 Covid-19 cases and 383 deaths, but officials say that fatalities in Uganda and across Africa have likely been vastly undercounted due to low Covid-19 testing numbers.
The continent has seen nearly five million coronavirus cases and has reported more than 130,000 deaths--nearly 4% of worldwide deaths from the virus.
Uganda is expecting three million vaccine doses from COVAX, the U.N.-backed facility tasked with getting doses to developing countries, but has received only one million so far as it recorded a 131% weekly increase in Covid-19 infections last week.
Fewer than 2% of people in sub-Saharan Africa have received vaccine doses, and while wealthy countries like the U.S. have started vaccinating children as young as 12 to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to vulnerable populations, many African countries are struggling to get second doses of the vaccines to high-risk groups, leaving them only partially inoculated.
Four African countries--Eritrea, Tanzania, Burundi, and Chad--have yet to begin administering any vaccinations.
"The threat of a third wave in Africa is real and rising," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for Africa at the World Health Organization (WHO), told The Guardian. "Our priority is clear--it's crucial that we swiftly get vaccines into the arms of Africans at high risk of falling seriously ill and dying of Covid-19."
The third wave of the pandemic is spreading across the continent as progressive organizations and public health experts double-down on demands that the WTO suspend patents for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines, a possibility the organization has been weighing for months.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen slammed the European Union's intention "to block negotiations that the rest of the world supports to temporarily waive intellectual property (IP) barriers to end the pandemic and save lives" at the TRIPS Council meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dozens of countries have come out in support of a waiver since the Biden administration announced it backed temporarily lifting patent protections in early May, but the E.U., Germany, and the U.K. are continuing to block the measure.
"The EU has so far refused to engage in productive discussions on the proposal and continues to instead rally for voluntary measures by pharmaceutical corporations, which so far have shown limited success," said Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) on Monday, with the group's international medical secretary, Dr. Maria Guevara, calling on world governments to "do everything in their power to make sure that every country has the best chance to save as many lives as possible throughout this pandemic."
Amid repeated calls for global cooperation to stop the pandemic in its tracks, said Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden, the international response to the third wave in Africa amounts to "preventable mass death that rich governments just sit back and watch."
More than 100 countries, over 400 lawmakers in the U.K. and the E.U., and 175 Nobel laureates have joined public health experts at the WHO and other global organizations to call for patent waivers. More than 60 countries have expressed support for a revised waiver proposal by South African and Indian officials, which is being debated at this week's two-day meeting.
"Europe must stop standing in the way of fair vaccine distribution," said Oxfam E.U. on Tuesday. "People in low-income countries can't be left waiting for half a century for their vaccine."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Months into a debate at the World Trade Organization over suspending patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines in order to end the global pandemic, the delay has left Africa facing a third wave of deadly infections as countries across the continent confront dwindling supplies of vaccines.
As The Guardian reported Tuesday, eight countries have seen cases rise by more than 30% in the last week and officials have raised alarm over possible looming shortages of hospital beds and oxygen, unless the outbreaks can be brought under control.
"In this wave, the intensity of severe and critically ill Covid-19 patients, and deaths is higher than what we experienced in the first wave of the pandemic," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday.
"The EU has so far refused to engage in productive discussions on the proposal and continues to instead rally for voluntary measures by pharmaceutical corporations, which so far have shown limited success."
--Doctors Without Borders
The country has recorded nearly 53,000 Covid-19 cases and 383 deaths, but officials say that fatalities in Uganda and across Africa have likely been vastly undercounted due to low Covid-19 testing numbers.
The continent has seen nearly five million coronavirus cases and has reported more than 130,000 deaths--nearly 4% of worldwide deaths from the virus.
Uganda is expecting three million vaccine doses from COVAX, the U.N.-backed facility tasked with getting doses to developing countries, but has received only one million so far as it recorded a 131% weekly increase in Covid-19 infections last week.
Fewer than 2% of people in sub-Saharan Africa have received vaccine doses, and while wealthy countries like the U.S. have started vaccinating children as young as 12 to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to vulnerable populations, many African countries are struggling to get second doses of the vaccines to high-risk groups, leaving them only partially inoculated.
Four African countries--Eritrea, Tanzania, Burundi, and Chad--have yet to begin administering any vaccinations.
"The threat of a third wave in Africa is real and rising," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for Africa at the World Health Organization (WHO), told The Guardian. "Our priority is clear--it's crucial that we swiftly get vaccines into the arms of Africans at high risk of falling seriously ill and dying of Covid-19."
The third wave of the pandemic is spreading across the continent as progressive organizations and public health experts double-down on demands that the WTO suspend patents for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines, a possibility the organization has been weighing for months.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen slammed the European Union's intention "to block negotiations that the rest of the world supports to temporarily waive intellectual property (IP) barriers to end the pandemic and save lives" at the TRIPS Council meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dozens of countries have come out in support of a waiver since the Biden administration announced it backed temporarily lifting patent protections in early May, but the E.U., Germany, and the U.K. are continuing to block the measure.
"The EU has so far refused to engage in productive discussions on the proposal and continues to instead rally for voluntary measures by pharmaceutical corporations, which so far have shown limited success," said Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) on Monday, with the group's international medical secretary, Dr. Maria Guevara, calling on world governments to "do everything in their power to make sure that every country has the best chance to save as many lives as possible throughout this pandemic."
Amid repeated calls for global cooperation to stop the pandemic in its tracks, said Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden, the international response to the third wave in Africa amounts to "preventable mass death that rich governments just sit back and watch."
More than 100 countries, over 400 lawmakers in the U.K. and the E.U., and 175 Nobel laureates have joined public health experts at the WHO and other global organizations to call for patent waivers. More than 60 countries have expressed support for a revised waiver proposal by South African and Indian officials, which is being debated at this week's two-day meeting.
"Europe must stop standing in the way of fair vaccine distribution," said Oxfam E.U. on Tuesday. "People in low-income countries can't be left waiting for half a century for their vaccine."
Months into a debate at the World Trade Organization over suspending patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines in order to end the global pandemic, the delay has left Africa facing a third wave of deadly infections as countries across the continent confront dwindling supplies of vaccines.
As The Guardian reported Tuesday, eight countries have seen cases rise by more than 30% in the last week and officials have raised alarm over possible looming shortages of hospital beds and oxygen, unless the outbreaks can be brought under control.
"In this wave, the intensity of severe and critically ill Covid-19 patients, and deaths is higher than what we experienced in the first wave of the pandemic," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Sunday.
"The EU has so far refused to engage in productive discussions on the proposal and continues to instead rally for voluntary measures by pharmaceutical corporations, which so far have shown limited success."
--Doctors Without Borders
The country has recorded nearly 53,000 Covid-19 cases and 383 deaths, but officials say that fatalities in Uganda and across Africa have likely been vastly undercounted due to low Covid-19 testing numbers.
The continent has seen nearly five million coronavirus cases and has reported more than 130,000 deaths--nearly 4% of worldwide deaths from the virus.
Uganda is expecting three million vaccine doses from COVAX, the U.N.-backed facility tasked with getting doses to developing countries, but has received only one million so far as it recorded a 131% weekly increase in Covid-19 infections last week.
Fewer than 2% of people in sub-Saharan Africa have received vaccine doses, and while wealthy countries like the U.S. have started vaccinating children as young as 12 to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to vulnerable populations, many African countries are struggling to get second doses of the vaccines to high-risk groups, leaving them only partially inoculated.
Four African countries--Eritrea, Tanzania, Burundi, and Chad--have yet to begin administering any vaccinations.
"The threat of a third wave in Africa is real and rising," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for Africa at the World Health Organization (WHO), told The Guardian. "Our priority is clear--it's crucial that we swiftly get vaccines into the arms of Africans at high risk of falling seriously ill and dying of Covid-19."
The third wave of the pandemic is spreading across the continent as progressive organizations and public health experts double-down on demands that the WTO suspend patents for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines, a possibility the organization has been weighing for months.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen slammed the European Union's intention "to block negotiations that the rest of the world supports to temporarily waive intellectual property (IP) barriers to end the pandemic and save lives" at the TRIPS Council meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dozens of countries have come out in support of a waiver since the Biden administration announced it backed temporarily lifting patent protections in early May, but the E.U., Germany, and the U.K. are continuing to block the measure.
"The EU has so far refused to engage in productive discussions on the proposal and continues to instead rally for voluntary measures by pharmaceutical corporations, which so far have shown limited success," said Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) on Monday, with the group's international medical secretary, Dr. Maria Guevara, calling on world governments to "do everything in their power to make sure that every country has the best chance to save as many lives as possible throughout this pandemic."
Amid repeated calls for global cooperation to stop the pandemic in its tracks, said Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden, the international response to the third wave in Africa amounts to "preventable mass death that rich governments just sit back and watch."
More than 100 countries, over 400 lawmakers in the U.K. and the E.U., and 175 Nobel laureates have joined public health experts at the WHO and other global organizations to call for patent waivers. More than 60 countries have expressed support for a revised waiver proposal by South African and Indian officials, which is being debated at this week's two-day meeting.
"Europe must stop standing in the way of fair vaccine distribution," said Oxfam E.U. on Tuesday. "People in low-income countries can't be left waiting for half a century for their vaccine."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.