Neo-colonialism and the Right to Health: The Covid-19 Pandemic and Access to Vaccines by the Global South

Abstract

A study reveals the stark gap between the vaccine programs in different countries. And while vaccine doses remain relatively scarce globally, concerns around waning immunity have prompted many countries, including United States, to start administering additional doses, whereas many of the countries in the Global South are not expected to have substantial doses of COVID vaccine delivered as late as 2024 and rely on a global vaccine sharing agreement/program called COVAX - initiated by World Health Organization (WHO), which was originally aimed at providing 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, but has repeatedly lowered expectations due to production issues, export bans and vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations while depriving poor countries of any substantial access.

They prioritize bilateral deals and go around COVAX to jump in front of the queue in order to secure large doses (as much as one billion) of COVID vaccines. Further, the European Union authorised its member states to put limitations on the exportation of vaccines. Moreover, the failure of COVAX can be mainly attributed to the insufficiency of contributions, funds and donations made by the wealthy countries and faces a funding gap of about 7.2 billion to realize its goal but amidst the pandemic brought world economic crisis, filling this gap can be challenging. Additionally, the hoarding of vaccines by rich countries has only multiplied the problem by driving up the prices and making the sufficient procurement of vaccine hellacious for many of the Global South nations.

In late February 2021, Ghana became the first country to receive vaccine doses under the COVAX scheme. Yet, the late “timing and the relatively modest supply—enough for just 1% of Ghana’s population—point to major challenges” moving forward. Indeed, by April 2021, COVAX “distributed 43 million doses of vaccine to 119 countries—covering just 0.5 percent of their combined population of more than four billion.” This delayed access and inequity is further exacerbated by driving monopoly over the prices by giant pharmaceuticals. These vaccine monopolies make cost of vaccinating the world against COVID at least 5 times more expensive than it could be. Where 81% of the population in high and upper-middle income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine, a mere 18% of the population has been vaccinated in the low-income countries. Africa has the lowest vaccination rate of any continent, with only 22.9 percent of the population receiving at least one vaccination. To boot and highlight the irregularity further, South Africa was only able to procure AstraZeneca vaccine for its population at a brazen cost of $5.25 per dose, which is more than double of $2.16 per dose at which the European Union obtained many millions of the said vaccine. This is compounded by Moderna’s earlier indication that it did not plan to distribute its vaccine in South Africa. One of the most expensive vaccines- a single dose of Moderna costs between $32 to $37 with an efficacy of 95% and while Moderna has pledged to not enforce its patent during the pandemic; however, to put simply, it does not own all the patents in its vaccine and therefore cannot make any credible commitments binding other patent holders.

The past seems to be the present-day reality of the lives of Black and other people of colour in the shape and size of their exploitation. From the unethical clinical trial conducted by Pfizer in Nigeria during the meningitis outbreak of 1996, where eleven children died and many others were left suffering from brain damage, paralysis and slurred speech, after two hundred children were given an experimental antibiotic - to the - trials conducted in Uganda to test the efficacy and side effects of vaccine designed for HIV Subtype B – a subtype of HIV that is dominantly prevalent in Europe and Americas as opposed to Subtype D, which is the chief form prevalent in Africa. It underscores elements of medical colonialism and the absurdity of such research where Uganda is viewed as a playground to test the safety of a vaccine made to attack HIV subtype that is not dominant in the very region. It also highlights the preference of vaccine developers to focus on catering healthcare products for dominant variant in high- income countries of the Global North. Much on these racialized lines, when in April 2020, two French doctors publicly discussed about potentially utilizing African subjects in experimental trials conducted to test tuberculosis vaccine for the novel coronavirus i.e., COVID-19, it generated much backlash on social media and opened many wounds for the Black, Indigenous and other people of colour being treated as ‘disposable’. The controversial utterances were widely condemned and the Director-General of World Health Organisation (WHO) dispraised their racist remarks as “hangover from ‘colonial mentality’” and said that“Africa won’t be a testing ground for any vaccine”. Note worthy to mention that colonialist patterns that focuses on Euro-Western world superiority have shaped language and the consequent response around the current pandemic affecting Global South nations by using labelling such as the ‘Wuhan Virus’ or the ‘Chinese Virus’, Chinese and other East Asian populations worldwide are being scapegoated and facing discrimination. Therefore, unveiling the layers of racial valuation is crucial to identify its remnants in contemporary practices and laws that discreetly and in covert ways facilitate racial subordination globally, which has widened the pre-existing inequities resulting from histories of slavery, redlining, racism and the predatory nature of capitalism that underpin the design of global and public health systems.

Note:

Funding Information: None.

Conflict of Interests: None.

Keywords: Neo-colonialism, Medical Neo-colonialism, Racist, Disposable lives, Global South, Global North, Discrimination, COVID-19, Vaccine inequality, TRIPS

JEL Classification: I14