The roll-out of injectable contraception between the 1950s and the 1970s by then minority, undemocratic governments in South Africa and Zimbabwe raised concerns about these programmes being a mechanism to curb fertility rates among black communities.ДЄnd itвЂ™s reared its head again recently. During apartheid, we saw medical experimentation leading to chemical and biological weapon programmes being set up by the South African government to develop substances that could poison, sterilise or kill Black people. There has been the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which infected Black men in the US were observed but not treated over four decades. вЂњI will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the worldвЂ™s poor should be satisfied with leftovers.вЂќ A vaccine glut vs a desert: Why we need redistribution of the dosesДЄlthough vaccine hesitancy is real, it is shaped by a history of medical research not always having the best interest of participants вЂ“ especially from minority communities вЂ“ at heart. вЂњecause manufacturers have prioritised or been legally obliged to fulfil bilateral deals with rich countries willing to pay top dollar, low-income countries have been deprived of the tools to protect their people,вЂќ Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing the same day. This comes on the back of many countries in the North starting to consider rolling out third shots, despite the WHO repeatedly having called for a moratorium on booster shots to first get healthcare workers and the elderly in low-income countries vaccinated. The next day, COVAX вЂ“ the international initiative set up to ensure global access to COVID vaccines вЂ“ announced a sobering outlook: it had to cut its forecast of deliveries to low-income countries by 25% for 2021вЂ“2022В because of a constrained supply chain. The world was not fooled by a press briefing of some of the big pharmaceutical companies on 7 September вЂ“ the same one where Bourla aired his views вЂ“ proclaiming they are confident of having enough vaccines for everyone. The situation is so unequal that the World Health OrganisationвЂ™s (WHO) director general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, warned already in March this year that the vaccination gap between rich and poor countries would become вЂњmore grotesque every dayвЂќ.

While many African countries are still waiting for supplies, richer countries have in effect bought up the lot for 2021.

The results were remarkably consistent across countries, suggesting that people in poorer countries are willing to get their shots вЂ“ if only vaccines were available to them. Quite to the contrary, a team of leading researchers reported in Nature Medicine in July this year that COVID vaccine acceptance is higher in several low- and middle-income countries, including a number in Africa, than in richer countries such as the United States (US) and Russia. A вЂgrotesqueвЂ™ gap: How rich countries are controlling COVID vaccine suppliesД«ourlaвЂ™s statements about vaccine hesitancy perpetuates a far too common narrative, grounded in racism and which paints people in Africa as being science shy and resistant towards vaccines and other medical advances. If we consider that Africa has close to 1.4-billion people, this ratio translates to only a country the size of Ghana being vaccinated on the entire continent. Of the approximately 6.4-billion vaccine doses administered globally so far, only about 2.5% have been in Africa. ItвЂ™s not because people in Africa are hesitant that theyвЂ™re not getting their shots itвЂ™s because theyвЂ™re simply not getting stock. Rather than focusing on the high levels of vaccine equity, pharmaceutical companies are trying to shift the blame onto vaccine hesitancy on the continent.ДЄlbert Bourla, the CEO of the US-based pharma giant Pfizer, recently claimed the slow uptake of COVID jabs in Africa is because of vaccine hesitancy, which, he said, would be вЂњway, way higher than the percentage of hesitancy in Europe or in the US or JapanвЂќ.Д«ut he conveniently misses the truth.As a result of vaccine hoarding by rich countries, more than 100-million COVID doses could go to waste this year.

Only 2.5% of the worldвЂ™s COVID vaccines have gone to African countries.

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