Ghana became the first country to receive a shipment of coronavirus vaccine from a global effort to equitably distribute doses after a plane landed Wednesday with 600,000 AstraZeneca shots. The rollout is a first step toward getting doses to low- and middle-income countries cut out of the global vaccine race. But the timing and the relatively modest supply — enough for just 1 percent of Ghana’s population — point to major challenges in the immunization effort. More than 190 countries signed up to participate in Covax, a multilateral effort to develop and distribute coronavirus vaccine doses, but the initiative has struggled to secure enough as wealthy countries snapped up a disproportionate share of early supply.
President Biden last week pledged $4 billion to the effort, reversing the Trump administration’s decision to opt-out. Yet the United States and other wealthy countries have so far resisted calls to give doses, rather than funding, to countries in greatest need. Covax aims to distribute 2.3 billion doses by the end of 2021 — a significant amount but still well short of demand. Ghana, a country of 31 million, was selected as the first recipient after sending a rollout plan to Covax proving its healthcare teams and cold-chain equipment were ready to support a quick distribution. The Ivory Coast and other countries in the region are expected to receive similar shipments soon. The doses touching down in the capital, Accra, came from the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. Ghana kicked off its rollout months behind wealthier nations, highlighting the deep disparities of shot distribution as the pandemic throttles life around the globe.
I completely agree that the entire world, including impoverished nations, need to receive vaccines and very soon. However, I think it’s disappointing that COVAX is not prioritizing nations by a risk-based assessment. Distributing vaccines to Ghana first is a nonsensical move and it won’t save as many lives as it would if it were distributed to a country with more of its population at risk. Ghana is a young country. It has a median age of 21. This may explain their low death rate of 1.96/100,000. By comparison, the USA has a death rate of 153/100,000. Honduras has a death rate of 43/100,000. In fact, many impoverished nations have an exponentially higher death rate than Ghana. It’s sad to see that the COVID vaccine rollout has not been based on risk assessment and death rates because I know it will result in more lives lost than a risk-based distribution plan.