Anti-Covid vaccines: Gordon Brown calls for more doses to be sent to Africa

Only 1.8% of the African population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Here at a vaccination center near Johannesburg, South Africa, June 3, 2021. © Denis Farrell / AP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Anger of the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the vaccine policy of Western countries.

In a column published by

The Guardian

newspaper on

Monday, August 16, he calls on leaders to call a summit to address the lack of vaccines in Africa while billions of doses are administered elsewhere.

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It is a monumental failure of the West, a "

 hold-up 

", says Gordon Brown in this forum, where the former British Prime Minister is said to be shocked by the example of South Africa where millions of doses vaccines have been produced in recent weeks for export to Europe.

Only 1.8% of Africa is vaccinated

At the same time, the African continent is fighting with the deadliest wave of Covid-19 contaminations.

Africa, which has only been able to vaccinate 1.8% of its population, is now turning to China for access to precious doses.

The former Labor leader is attacking a Europe with a neocolonial approach and which divides the world, according to him, between rich and protected people, who have the possibility to live and those who are poor, unprotected and who risk to pass away.

"Vaccine nationalism - and Europe's neocolonial approach to global health - is dividing the world into rich and protected people, who live, and those who are poor, unprotected and at risk of dying," # vaccines4all https://t.co/sr422qgPsa

- Gordon Brown (@GordonBrown) August 16, 2021

Of the 4.7 billion doses of vaccines that have been distributed to date, more than 80% have gone to the wealthiest G20 countries.

As a result, he adds, rich countries should be able to release 50 billion pounds, or nearly 60 billion euros in financial assistance via Covax to countries in need, lift patents to allow African countries to manufacture their own vaccines and dispose of the doses that have been ordered en masse and will not be used.

►Also read: In Tunisia, civil society is mobilizing for vaccination campaigns

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  • Africa

  • Vaccines

  • Coronavirus

  • Health and medicine

  • Gordon brown