Thread by @AbraarKaran

THREAD

1/ Read this. This is "global health"? This is our "solidarity"? This is extractive.

Vaccines produced in South Africa & tested on South Africans are then deemed safe, & first given to Americans, British, & others in wealthy countries.
nytimes.com/2020/12/28/wor…

2/ "Poor & middle-income nations, largely unable to compete in the open market, rely on a complex vaccine sharing scheme called Covax."

But as the article mentions, this 'aid' is conditional; some countries are not "poor enough" to qualify, but also can't afford enough vaccines

3/
Within South Africa (& many countries), the wealthy will buy vaccines to protect themselves.

The poor are in a gamble w/ their lives.

**“We’ll all be dead then,” said Prudence Nonzamedyantyi, 46, a housekeeper from the same township.** (quote from the article)

4/ "South African medical advisers say the Covax system is vital but also deeply frustrating. Governments must pay up front without knowing what vaccine they will receive or getting any guarantees on when the doses will arrive."

5/ "Covax estimates the price per dose but offers little recourse if the cost is ultimately much higher. Countries must assume all of the risk if the vaccine fails or if anything goes wrong."

This sounds problematic. Again, this is "global health"? This is solidarity? No.

6/ None of us are safe until we are all safe, ESP those most vulnerable among us; those working on the frontline w/ highest exposure risk; those living in crowded housing w/ highest transmission risk.

This epidemic is one of inequities before viruses.

7/ End of last yr, I wrote about how epidemics showed us that global solidarity was largely a myth; what was more clear was global health *security*-- rich countries making sure they protected themselves against epidemics originating in poor countries. journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-sh…

8/ We see the same playing out now.

I had seen a tweet recently showing a global map of current vaccine distribution which was eerily demonstrative of what I'm talking about (share it if someone else has seen it, can't find it now)

9/ With rapidly rising case count in South Africa + news of variant w/ more effective transmission characteristics, one could easily argue focusing vaccination efforts right here; but, as the original article makes clear, global politics and $ dominate.

reuters.com/article/us-hea…

cc @rajpanjabi @NickKristof @carlzimmer @gregggonsalves @ReganHMarsh @Sheila_DavisDNP @kj_seung @JoiaMukherjee @RanuDhillon @MartenRobert @paimadhu