Rich nations to have major COVID vaccine surplus

Rich nations are set to have a major surplus of COVID-19 vaccines

Wealthy countries could potentially have a surplus of more than one billion vaccine doses by the end of the year that aren’t set to be donated to poorer countries.

According to new research, COVID vaccine stock in Western nations has now reached 500 million doses this month alone, with 360 million not marked to be donated, according to the research conducted by data analytics firm Airfinity.

Airfinity stated that by the end of the year, these countries will have a potential of 1.2 billion surplus vaccine shots, with the overwhelming majority – 1.06 billion – not marked for donations.

The full Airfinity report, focuses on the available supply of vaccines in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and Japan.

The full Airfinity report will be published on September 7

Vaccine inequality has been criticised by many prominent health figures.

COVAX, the UN-supported global vaccine-sharing program, has initially projected to provide two billion vaccine doses to people in 190 countries this yea. Those expectations included 92 lower-income countries, which would ensure that at least 20 percent of populations are vaccinated.

However, the wealthy countries’ deals with vaccine manufacturers have limited the vaccines available to COVAX – and that’s led to ‘vaccine hoarding’.

The WHO speaks out:

Over the weekend, the global director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, held a meeting with the G20 health ministers and stated that the global inequity of vaccines was “unacceptable”.

The WHO boss noted that more than 5 billion vaccines had already been administered worldwide but stated that almost 75 percent of those doses had been administered in just 10 countries.

Vaccination coverage in Africa was just 2 percent

Ghebreyesus was echoed by John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), who described the vaccine rollout on the continent as a “total disappointment“ according to AlJazeera.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has accused rich countries of committing a “moral outrage” by stockpiling COVID-19 doses while poor countries were continuing to struggle to get an acceptable supply of COVID jabs.