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The paths to vaccination are tangled (symbolic image)
Photo: Andriy Onufriyenko / Getty Images
More than a third of the respondents in Germany would forego a vaccination appointment if they were not offered the vaccine they prefer.
That was the result of a poll published last week.
While many in Germany seem to think that not all vaccines approved after careful consideration are good enough for them, people in many other countries have serious problems.
Because in many nations the vaccinations have not started at all.
While Germany had already ordered more than enough vaccine in January to fully vaccinate all citizens by autumn, others began to wait much longer.
The World Health Organization has formulated a plan that vaccination of medical personnel in all countries should begin in the first 100 days of the year.
According to the WHO Covax program, the countries in Africa, for example, should receive their first vaccine doses in February.
In the first half of 2021 they should be able to vaccinate three percent of their population with it.
Three percent by the end of June.
By the end of the year there should be enough doses to vaccinate 20 percent of the people living on the African continent.
Solidarity obviously has limits
So if everyone in Germany has long been able to get vaccinated and there is more vaccine available in Germany than is needed, up to 80 percent of the population, four out of five people, will still be waiting for the vaccination in many countries of the world.
Germany is involved in Covax - and at the G7 summit, the participating states increased their financial commitments for the vaccination campaign.
But solidarity obviously has limits.
Chancellor Merkel said that Germany would deliver vaccines if necessary, but at the same time assured that "no vaccination appointment in Germany would be in danger".
Of course not.
What do you think people in these countries would say about the above survey?
I would like your problems?
"If we hoard vaccines and don't share them, there will be three big problems," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the end of January. "First, it's a catastrophic moral failure.
Second, it will keep the pandemic going.
And third, the global economy will recover more slowly. ”There is little to add to his list.
The German vaccination debate does not raise much hope
Even out of self-interest, the rich nations should actually act differently, can be inferred from the second point - and bad enough that it is even necessary to argue with self-interest on a moral question: If the virus can continue to spread well in many countries, Because vaccination is not yet possible there, the risk increases that new mutants will emerge, against which the vaccines provide poorer protection.
Today's egoism can jeopardize the success of vaccinations tomorrow
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WHO Emergency Relief Coordinator Mike Ryan said at the appointment that it looks like some are arguing about the cake while others aren't even getting the crumbs.
“We all have to ask ourselves: Would I get vaccinated today if I remembered that a medical professional in the south would not get a vaccination today?
I think we should all settle this with our conscience and then tell our governments how we think they should act. "
However, if you follow the vaccination debates in Germany, there is little hope that politicians will soon have to deal with the request to distribute vaccines to other countries.
Abroad, they only look to point out that things could have been faster and that more vaccine could have been bought, as Britain and Israel have done.
But realize that it would be more important to vaccinate the vulnerable groups in all countries before those who are at low risk get vaccinated?
The piece of cake on the plate seems too tempting for that.
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