Link: https://allafrica.com/stories/202112020445.html
On December 2, 2021 Kenya received 2.2 million Covid-19 vacancies. Kenya received the vaccines made by Astrazeneca from Covax in Germany. Currently Kenya has about 7.1 of their population vaccinated out of their 53.7 million or about 13.2 percent of Kenya’s population. The new urge by the government of Kenya for their people to get vaccinated comes after the new Omicron variant was discovered in South Africa. Kenya’s Health Cabinet Secretary announced that anyone who isn’t vaccinated will be denied places on public transportation and in hotels. The government has also since intensified it’s surveillance protocols to reduce the spread of the new variant.
This is important because it shows that Germany, like many other countries, is trying to stop the spread of the new Omicron variant. Germany is in fear that there is going to be another global shutdown which is what many countries are trying to avoid. 2.2 million vaccines is a good start to give Kenya but to get everyone vaccinated or a large majority. They are going to need more countries to step in and also give donations to Kenya and other sub-saharan African countries so that Omicron can hopefully be kept to a minimum. The WHO or World Health Organization is looking at if the current Covid vaccine will help protect you.
This relates to International Relations because it kinda puts Germany in a liberal theory idea. Germany is sacrificing their resources right now to give them to Kenya and other countries so that they can benefit. At the same time by giving their resources up now it can help stop a global shutdown. A shutdown would make Germany’s economy fall like we saw with many countries in 2020 when we saw the first shutdown due to Covid-19. Stopping this shutdown is what Germany’s national interest is right now and that’s what they are working to do.