At his year-end press conference, Dec. 29, World Health Organization executive director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to unite forces to push to the target of 70% vaccination level—still a reachable goal. Speaking from the new WHO hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, based in Berlin, he said, “This is the moment for leaders to banish the politics of populism and self-interest, which are derailing the COVID-19 response and threatening to undermine the response to the inevitable next disease.”
While most of the “developed” countries have already reached an approximation of that 70% level, a majority of the “undeveloped” world has not. The entirety of the continent of Africa is not even 10% vaccinated, with a few small tourist-attraction island-nations being the rare exception. Nigeria, Africa’s most-populated nation, is running about 3%, and like many others, is being submerged by the fourth wave of pandemic.
In September, the WHO started a drive to vaccinate 40% of Africa by year’s end, a target which BBC was quick to notice on Dec. 31 that only seven of the countries were able to reach. As of Jan. 3, 2022, confirmed cases of COVID-19 from 55 African countries reached almost 10 million, at 9,775,425, according to WHO figures, with deaths just over 228,000, with 40% being from South Africa, alone.
