Vaccine inequity: Inside the cutthroat race to secure doses

"Some involved in the COVAX project flagged India as a potential problem early on, according to minutes of meetings in late spring and early summer of 2020.

India’s government had blocked exports of protective gear, but many global health authorities who hadn’t fully grasped the extent of pandemic nationalism found it unimaginable that the country would block vaccines when the world was counting on them."

India has donated or exported more than 64 million vaccine doses before the second wave hit. At one point of time, India had exported more doses than the population it had vaccinated. It is unfair to expect a third world country like India ruled by an incompetent government to come to the aid of the poorer countries when the rich countries have stockpiled doses much larger than their entire populations and are not keen on helping those poorer countries.

Justice, fairness, equality, compassion - these supposedly virtuous humane quality do not exist on earth. They can only be found in the never-never land..

It is my hope that those countries able to make effective vaccines will work hard to make and distribute enough vaccines for every single one of the 8 billion people on Earth.

The US had a foreign aid budget the last few years of 40 billion usd per year. At 20 dollars a shot, that amount of foreign aid would buy enough two dose vaccine for 1 billion people.

Of course, there will be those who would rather die than get vaccinated, but that is another story.