Dialogue on impact of vaccine inequities in Global South

“On 6 January, gastroenterologist Leolin Katsidzira received a troubling message from his colleague James Gita Hakim, a heart specialist and noted HIV/AIDS researcher.

“Hakim, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, had fallen sick and had tested positive for COVID-19.

“He was admitted to a hospital in Harare 10 days later and moved to an intensive care unit after his condition deteriorated. He died on 26 January.

“ ‘It is a crushing loss to Zimbabwean medicine,’ Katsidzira says. ‘Don’t forget: We have had a huge brain drain. So people like James are people who keep the system going,’ he adds.”

The quote above, describing the death of Hakim, is from a recent article by journalist Kai Kupferschmidt, in Science, titled “Unprotected African health workers die as rich countries buy up COVID-19 vaccines”, in which Kupferschmidt also recalls the demise of several other prominent health care scientists in Africa. University World News also reported on Hakim’s death.

Indeed, Hakim is one in a sea of human faces who remind the world of how the tragic consequences of inequities in health care between high- and low-income countries are playing out during the time of COVID-19.

World faces ethical dilemma

Whereas the monumental efforts of scientists, governments, pharmaceutical companies and other global health organisations have already yielded several viable vaccines, the world is confronted with an ethical dilemma.

Many wealthy nations, such as the United States, Canada and Britain, have secured enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations, in some cases multiple times over.

On the other hand, estimates suggest that most low-income nations may be able to vaccinate only up to 20% of their populations in 2021, leaving many of the most vulnerable unprotected.

The impact of the uneven availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, therefore, remains pertinent as the global community grapples with the disease.

Dialogue series to start soon

This has informed the choice of the topic, ‘The impact of COVID-19 vaccine inequities in the Global South’ as the first in the Alliance for African Partnership Public Dialogue Series, which will take place virtually on 31 March. The impact of vaccine inequity will be explored in the broadest thematic sense.

The Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) was co-created by Michigan State University (MSU) and African thought leaders in 2016 and is a consortium of MSU and 10 leading African universities. AAP members collaborate to address global challenges.

The vaccine dialogue will be co-hosted by various MSU centres, including African Studies, Asian Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies as well as the university’s Institute for Global Health.

International experts

The virtual dialogue will include panellists who will focus on the global political, economic and diplomatic tussles affecting vaccine access; the practical or logistical realities of distribution; and the role of higher education institutions in mitigating health crises through research.

The human rights dimension will also be discussed – a concern of growing proportion amid the uneven vaccine availability.

As Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, asserted: “The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure, and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”

Roberto Lopez, the executive director of International Action for Health (Acción Internacional para la Salud), will reflect on this moral dilemma in the context of health as a human right to use as a bargaining chip for more equal access.

The other panellists who will participate include Dr Tonya Villafana, the vice president, global franchise head, infection, AstraZeneca, who will address the challenges of vaccine distribution amid disruptive forces, such as new variants, as well as misinformation about vaccinations.

The subject ‘Looking at low-income contexts and the role of higher education’ will include panellist Dr Richard Mihigo, co-ordinator for the immunisation and vaccine preventable disease programme of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, based in the Congo, and Professor Ova Emilia, dean of the faculty of medicine, public health and nursing at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia.

Amit Kumar, consul general of India in Chicago in the US, will speak about the coronavirus vaccine as a currency in international diplomacy. China, Russia and India have all been vying for power in this domain.

Positioned at a critical junction between North and South, India has been able to yield vaccine power in both the North, as a key producer of health-care products including COVID-19 vaccines, and the South, where a connectedness with the plight of countries in the South, has emerged.

The AAP’s dialogue series will, in future sessions, also explore topics such as race and economic development.

• On 14 April the interface between agriculture and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will be on the table.

• On 12 May a sharper focus will be placed on race relations and the role of higher education in Africa and the Global African diaspora.

• The last dialogue on African economic philosophies will be hosted in June.

Click here if you want to register for the first event in the AAP’s dialogue series. University World News is the AAP’s media partner.