COVAX gives hope of vaccine equality with roll out throughout Africa

“We have been fighting this virus, but we have been fighting it with rubber bullets,” said Kenya’s Minister of Health Mutahi Kagwe. “But what we have received here is equivalent, metaphorically speaking, to acquisition of machine guns, bazookas, and tanks to fight this war against Covid-19.”

Kenya received the initial shipment of just over 1 million doses Tuesday through the COVAX program, a global vaccine-sharing initiative to reduce vaccine inequality with discounted or free doses for lower-income countries.

Weeks after many wealthier nations began receiving their first doses, COVAX got underway last week starting with a delivery to Ghana. Days later, the country’s president became the first to publicly get vaccinated through the program.

“It’s important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it,” Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said Monday, as he kicked off a country-wide vaccine drive.

Ghana and Kenya, as well as Rwanda, Senegal,…

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