At least 10% of the inhabitants of each country vaccinated by September. This is the goal claimed Monday by the World Health Organization (WHO), through the voice of its director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In the process, the latter also deplored that a "small group of countries" monopolizes the precious serums since their development, adding that "more than 75% of all vaccines have been administered in only ten countries". While the Covid-19 epidemic has killed more than 3.4 million people worldwide, inequalities in access to the vaccine have continued to widen between the different regions of the globe.
"If all the doses had been distributed equitably over all the countries, we would have a vaccination coverage of 10% in each state, as the WHO wants.
This is far from being the case today where the doses are distributed mainly in Western countries ”, summarizes Mircea T. Sofonea, lecturer in epidemiology and evolution of infectious diseases at the University of Montpellier.
Big winner in the vaccine race, Israel counts 63% of its population first vaccinated (and 59% who received both doses).
Next comes the United Kingdom with 56.2% of people having received at least one injection, followed by Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates (with respectively 56% and 51% of first injections administered) and the United States which come from cross the threshold of 50% vaccinated.
Note also Chile, which stands out with 51% of first injections and 40% of its population fully vaccinated.
If it has accelerated its campaign in recent months, France is still far behind with 35% of first-time vaccines and 14% of people fully protected.
If the predominance of Western countries in access to the vaccine remains undeniable, this observation deserves to be qualified, insist the researchers.
"The fact that vaccination has accelerated in Europe and the United States is rationally explained: it is first and foremost where the epidemic threat is concentrated", underlines Mircea T. Sofonea.
In addition, if the differences observed between countries in the world are sometimes impressive, the health risk is not necessarily the same from one State to another.
“The countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have a much younger population and therefore less at risk than that of the countries of the North. The vaccination objective is therefore not necessarily always the same to be achieved in different states, ”says Pascal Crépey, researcher at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHSP). He added, however, that this reading does not "justify the cruel lack of access to doses" in certain regions of the world, such as Africa.
Because despite the intervention of the Covax device supposed to come to the aid of the poorest countries, the African continent is struggling to vaccinate its population.
It is estimated that only 2% of the doses available worldwide were administered there.
While not all states provide official statistics, many report extremely low vaccination rates.
Zimbabwe thus comes first on the continent with… 4.3% of vaccinated among its population.
Likewise, Central Africa has particularly low vaccination coverage, with 0.3% vaccinated in Mali, 0.5% in Niger and 1.4% in Ethiopia.
This rate barely reaches 1% in South Africa.
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A lack of logistics, an advanced skepticism ...
In addition to Africa, some Central Asian countries are encountering difficulties in vaccinating their populations. Iran thus has 3% of vaccinated on its territory. Similarly, Afghanistan has barely 1%, as does Pakistan. Figures that are not surprising, notes Mircea T. Sofonea. “These are areas where imports are proving more complicated both for geographical reasons - this is the case for example of Pakistan, which includes mountainous areas that are difficult to access - and for political reasons, in the event of diplomatic tension. Finally, populations may still not have access to healthcare, given a complicated local situation, ”adds the researcher.
Despite a shortage of doses, the lack of logistics is not the only cause of the delays encountered by some countries. Skepticism towards vaccination, which is very present in some parts of the world, is also thought to play a role. A finding already visible in several African states, where the authorities even deplore a lack of volunteers. "Some want to know more before getting vaccinated, others abstain for religious reasons," said Ben Chilima, director of the Malawi Institute of Public Health with the Guardian. Not to mention the circulation of false rumors according to which expired vaccines are being administered. Mistrust is still noticeable in South Sudan, where 60,000 doses of AstraZeneca had to be destroyed last month for lack of volunteers.
Finally, some states that have been suffocated by the epidemic suffer from a political discourse that undermines the scale of the epidemic, or even the usefulness of a vaccine. In the lead, Brazil, which encounters a laborious campaign - barely 9% of people fully vaccinated - not unrelated to the “anti-vaccine” positions of its president Jair Bolsonaro. “It is obvious that part of the population can adhere to these theses. That is why we cannot solve the problem of vaccination only from a logistical point of view. We must redouble pedagogy and education to alleviate local reluctance. This will also mean the end of the epidemic, ”says Mircea T. Sofonea.