Vaccine inequity only partially to blame for Africa's low vaccination rates, experts say

While vaccine inequity among African countries has played a major role in the continent's low COVID-19 vaccination rate, experts say capacity and logistical challenges, along with vaccine hesitancy, is also creating significant challenges.

"I've seen a number of articles say it's just vaccine inequity — and that's wrong. It's not just vaccine inequity," said Dr. Ron Whelan, who heads health insurer Discovery's COVID-19 task team in South Africa.

"[It's] one part supply, one part health-system capacity and the third part is the hesitancy component," he said.

"It is a multi-factorial problem that's got to be solved."

Dr. Saad B. Omer, an epidemiologist and director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, agrees it's a more nuanced explanation than just blaming vaccine inequity for low vaccination rates across the continent.

"We expect people to land the plane with a few doses at the airport, do a photo op, [and] people to run to the airport to get their jabs. That's never happened," he said.

While about 76 per cent of Canada's total population is fully vaccinated, on the African continent — home to 1.3 billion people — it's only about 7.5 per cent, according to Our World in Data.

In October, a report by the People's Vaccine Alliance — a coalition which advocates for equitable and sustainable use of vaccines, and includes Oxfam, ActionAid and Amnesty International — found that only one in seven COVID-19 vaccine doses promised to low-income countries were actually delivered.

However, vaccine shipments have been on the rise over the past three months and are expected to ramp up in coming weeks and over the new year, according to the World Health Organization.

Yet despite the increases in vaccine supply, experts suggest inoculation efforts in Africa could still face hurdles.

About 40 per cent of vaccines that have arrived on the continent so far have not been used, according to data from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a policy think-tank.

Some countries have been forced to destroy thousands of doses of donated vaccines from their stockpiles. Namibia, for example, announced on Monday that it had to destroy 150,000 expired doses.

"It is highly regrettable that we are forced to destroy in excess of 150,000 vaccines, which have reached expiry date, because those who are eligible are refusing to be vaccinated," Namibia President Hage Geingob is reported to have told a news conference on Monday.

According to the Washington Post, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe have all asked drugmaker Pfizer in the last several months to pause vaccine shipments because of challenges with uptake.