Omicron Covid-19 variant: experts accuse “iniquity” and reluctance of the vaccine

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The emergence of the Omicron variant has been made more likely by the “inequity” and reluctance of the vaccine, some experts say.

The emergence of the Omicron variant has been made more likely by the “inequity” and reluctance of the vaccine, some experts say.

The new Covid-19 strain, which has very mild symptoms and no deaths reported to date, was first identified in South Africa and has now been detected in countries like Australia, the UK, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Botswana.

The World Health Organization renamed the B.1.1.529 strain “Omicron” on Friday and declared it a “variant of concern”, amid fears that it is resistant to vaccines.

While it is not clear whether Omicron originated in South Africa or was introduced to the country from elsewhere, some scientists say the virus is more likely to mutate in places with low vaccination and transmission. high.

Only 24% of the South African population is fully immunized.

The eight African countries hit with travel bans due to the new variant – South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi – all have low vaccination rates, with Malawi the lowest in only 3.1%.

Michael Head, a senior global health researcher at the University of Southampton, told CNN that Omicron likely emerged in another country before being detected in South Africa.

“This could well be the consequence of an epidemic, probably in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where there is not much genomic surveillance going on and the vaccination rate is low,” he said. declared.

Dr Head said the new variants were “a natural consequence of being too slow to vaccinate the world”.

“We still have large unvaccinated populations, as throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and these are susceptible to major epidemics,” he told CNN.

He said reluctance to immunize combined with lack of access was the reason for the drop in immunization rates.

The World Health Organization has criticized rich countries for their “self-defeating” and “immoral” practice of hoarding vaccines against Covid-19 and breaking their promises to share doses with the developing world.

According to the WHO, only 7.5% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, compared to 63.9% of people in high-income countries.

WHO had set a target for all countries to immunize 10 percent of their population by the end of September, but 56 countries were unable to meet that target, most of them in Africa.

“Even more countries are at risk of missing WHO’s targets of immunizing 40% of each country’s population by the end of this year and 70% by the middle of next year,” he said. ‘WHO.

WHO says the only way to achieve these goals is for countries and companies that control vaccine supply to contract for the multilateral COVAX initiative and the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust.

Australia has pledged to donate 60 million doses of vaccine, making it one of the most generous countries on a per capita basis.

But the government has largely ignored the COVAX initiative for bilateral deals with countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, in what critics call “vaccine diplomacy,” influenced more by geopolitical motives.

“Australia’s approach puts it out of step with other major global donors,” write Alyssa Leng and Roland Rajah of the Lowy Institute.

“The only other major donor with a similar pattern of bilateral vaccine diplomacy is China – which does not share any of its vaccine doses through COVAX and has contributed relatively little financially to the facility. “

And he took a long time to keep his promises.

“To date, Australia has provided only 8% (4.9 million doses) of its pledged donations – an unnecessarily low number given that several million doses of AstraZeneca have not been used in Australia because of concerns about the rare risks of blood clotting, ”they note.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the UK health charity Wellcome Trust, said the new variants were “a reminder if we need them that the pandemic is far from over, inequity is what will prolong the pandemic “.

“We need to improve inclusive public health, including urgent equitable access to vaccines and all the tools necessary (to) stop (the) pandemic,” he wrote on Twitter.

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