Covid-19 has exposed Africa’s dependence on vaccines from abroad

UNTIL RELATIVELY recently, India had seemed to have evaded the worst impacts of covid-19. This inspired hope that Africa, with its young population, might also fare well. Yet what is happening in India is a “wake-up call for the continent”, says John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, a pan-African body. The calamity overseas has also brought another problem into focus: India has stopped exporting covid-19 vaccines in order to serve its own citizens, leaving Africa in a “very dicey situation”, says Dr Nkengasong.

Alarm at the lack of vaccine-making capacity on the continent has been growing for some time. South Africa has been pushing hard for a waiver on the patents on covid-19 vaccines through the World Trade Organisation. On May 5th America backed a temporary suspension.