The Vaccine tussle and the African situation

The COVID-19 pandemic has left in its wake a backlog of human and economic casualties. Though the last has not been said about the global pandemic, a wave of hope has swept over the global landscape with the successes recorded by some pharmaceutical companies in the race towards providing an efficacious vaccine. The race towards a vaccine that works has not been without its issues, ranging from political to conspiracy theories.

Laboratory reports got from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Pharmaceuticals, efficacy of vaccines were pegged at 95% and 94.1% respectively for preventing symptomatic COVID-191. Interesting as these findings sound, it is even more interesting noting the drastically short time from point zero in Manufacturing to point hundred in use and global adoption and administration, with many countries already ordering for the vaccines for wide scale immunization among citizens.

Africa seems however to stand at a precarious position currently. Despite not having had massive deaths as predicted for wide scale integration into global events like cross continental travels and participation in global sport festivals, immunization of the African society should be at the front burner for the African government. The laissez-faire attitude would not benefit both government and citizens.

Vaccine procurement at the moment seems to be an exclusive reserve of the wealthy nations, speaking in terms of measurable economic indices. The rising wave of new infection known as “second wave” of COVID-19 infection should worry key players in government and all corridors of power.

As much as undue recourse would not be made in this article on the mismanagement of funds which seem to have become the signature characteristic of most African governments, it is needful to say that the time is right for management at all levels to tighten up and rally economic strength to come through for the citizens. Waiting for the COVID-19 vaccine to come in form of aids from wealthier nations would not be to Africa’s best interest, because those wealthier nations so called, are in the boiling conundrum of this global health emergency and would not for any reason to look away from their citizens to give vaccines to the African continent for the sake of being in their good books.

A particular constraint that has shaped up the difficulty the continent would face is that of storage. If the continent gets this vaccine, the technology behind this vaccine requires sub-zero storage temperatures to guarantee vaccine viability during use. Of particular note is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that requires storage temperatures of -94 degrees Fahrenheit1.  Here again infrastructural deficits have come biting the people who have failed to put them in place.

The truth therefore remains that the limitation is hydra headed. Getting any form of relief from these biting realities will require real time efforts from good heads. And if Africa ever hopes to have themselves integrated into normal global trade, sports, education and health transactions and interactions, then it must of necessity look closely to where it can get vaccines at cost models that would not further impoverish or push it deeper into debt and as well pay attention to the infrastructural requirements for storage and onward distribution to its populace.

REFERENCE

Retrieved online from https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/19/a-side-by-side-comparison-of-the-pfizer-biontech-and -moderna-vaccines/

Written by- Okezie Ibileme

Edited by- Ezebuiro Lois I.C.