Amid the biggest vaccination campaign in history, more than 300 million COVID-19 jabs have now been administered across 114 countries. Millions of doses are injected into arms around the world every single day.
But while most of these vaccines have been given to people in rich and vaccine-producing countries, people in most low- and middle-income countries are forced to watch and wait.
As rich countries scramble to stockpile vaccines for their own citizens, the World Health Organization has urged them to think wider.
Since the start of the pandemic, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeated his message that kindness and togetherness are key to beating COVID-19.
“To protect the world, we must ensure that all people at risk everywhere – not just in countries who can afford vaccines – are immunised,” Dr Tedros said in his New Year’s speech.
Public health experts around the world are urging people receiving their COVID-19 vaccine to think about those who may not have access to a vaccine by .
Social media users have been echoing that message under the #MatchMyJab hashtag.
The COVAX program aims to address the global imbalance of vaccine distribution. By the end of 2021, it wants to secure enough vaccines for at least the most vulnerable 20 per cent in 145 low- and middle-income countries.
To do this, it needs more than $US4 billion ($A5.23 billion) urgently, according to the WHO. G7 countries have agreed to share a portion of their vaccines to COVAX, as well as pledge significant amounts of new funding to the program.
But while governments and pharmaceutical groups are key to equitable vaccine rollout, the general public can also make a huge difference.
Clare Strachan, principal advisor at Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne, says people in wealthy countries experiencing an organised vaccine rollout “have to look outwardly and think about being fair”.
“As COVID continues to surge in low- and middle-income countries across the world, there has been a lot of money committed to COVAX, but there isn’t enough and we may need a lot of money for a long time to come to sustain the vaccination effort," Ms Strachan said.
"There are fears many low-income countries will not have enough stock to protect their key and vulnerable populations. COVID has heightened the gaps between the rich and the poor - it's on all of us to address those inequities."
Ms Strachan says she would love to see #MatchMyJab take off.
Clare Strachan says people in wealthy countries experiencing an organised vaccine rollout “have to look outwardly". Source: Clare Strachan
"As we get our government-funded vaccines that have travelled to us over so many countries that have desperately needed them, it is important to think of the millions of people in low-income countries where the vaccine is still nowhere in sight."
Dr Diego Silva, lecturer in Bioethics at the University of Sydney School of Public Health, agrees we “have a moral obligation as global citizens to support and help our fellow humans".
For once, it would also show the world how much we care, he says.
“If every Australian chipped in two dollars for their vaccine, we’d have close to $A50 million. That would be terrific. It would show the world we think of people outside of Australia. While we are grappling with things like Manus Island and other immigration issues, it would be a very welcome change.”
Helping them helps us
The first doses of COVID-19 vaccines shipped from the COVAX facility in late February to Ghana. The program has since sent more than 12 million vaccine doses to 19 countries, 17 of them in Africa.
Countries will receive doses in proportion to population size, with the most going to India (97.2 million), Pakistan (17.2 million), Nigeria (16 million), Indonesia (13.7 million), Bangladesh (12.8 million) and Brazil (10.6 million).
Other big recipients are Ethiopia (8.9 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (6.9 million), Mexico (6.5 million), the Philippines (5.6 million) and Egypt (5.1 million).
This week, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, which co-leads COVAX with the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, implemented its first autonomous drones in order to deliver vaccines more quickly. In recent days, drones have dropped more than 2.5 million doses on Ghana.
The whole world depends on the program’s success, say public health experts.
If COVAX doesn’t get vaccines out fast enough, the globe will remain in the grip of pandemic.
“If COVAX don’t raise enough money, one possible outcome is the world becomes essentially divided into two parts - those countries that have vaccines, vaccine passports, travel and trade, and the countries who don’t," Dr Silva said.
“The other possible outcome is that we will take forever to get out of this pandemic as a world, so all of us will be dragged down.
“So there’s a sense in which you’re only as strong as those in a worse position ... Unless we want to indefinitely close our borders for several years to come, it is in our interest to ensure that the virus is under control in every other country.”
Dr Diego Silva says individuals are obliged to help fellow humans but the responsibility of getting vaccines to lower-income countries lies with governments. Source: Dr Diego Silva
Time is of the essence, Ms Strachan said.
"What we are hearing is that there is a sense in some African countries hard hit by the virus that they can’t afford to continue locking down – some people are not abiding by social distancing and other public health measures, which is spearheading the spread of the virus."
Plus, any vaccine delay in low- and middle-income countries will only give the virus greater opportunity to mutate into highly transmissible variants, which could undermine the efficacy of vaccines everywhere.
“If we allow the virus to thrive unabated in some countries, it’s going to lead to a greater risk for all of us," Ms Strachan said. "And this affects the world opening up, being able to trade, and people being able to travel.
“As we start to open up through our national vaccine rollouts, we have to remember that the version of ‘normal’ that we are aiming at really won’t be within our grasp until we can protect key and vulnerable groups across the whole world.”
But while individuals together can offer COVAX a huge boost through initiatives like #MatchMyJab, the responsibility in getting vaccines to low- and middle-income countries lies firmly with governments through funding and pharmaceutical companies in reducing the price of vaccines, Dr Silva says.
“#MatchMyJab is great but the way we are going to get out of the pandemic is for countries’ governments and NGOs such as the WHO to work together," he said.
"We can pitch in, that’s great, and it’s important to get the message across about our responsibilities. But responsibility still lies with government.”
Clare Strachan is the author's sister.
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