Africa’s special envoy condemns EU, COVAX for lack of COVID-19 vaccine donations

The African Union special envoy for COVID-19 condemned the European Union and international COVAX program over a lack of vaccine donations to the continent on Thursday.

“It became pretty clear by December that the hope that we would all as a global community buy vaccines together through COVAX was not being adhered to, particularly by the rich and powerful nations,” Strive Masiyiwa said during a press conference.

“The situation could be very different had we known back in December that ‘Listen, this help is not coming, do for yourselves,’” Masiyiwa added. He said that “many countries were just sitting back saying, ‘the vaccines are coming.’ … We as Africans are disappointed.”

Masiyiwa said Africa has purchased 400 million vaccine doses but has not received them yet.

“When we go to talk to their manufacturers, they tell us they’re completely maxed out meeting the needs of Europe, we’re referred to India,” Masiiyiwa said. 

The continent will begin receiving shipments of vaccines from the U.S. next week. 

He also took aim at the COVAX program, which is meant to give poorer countries vaccine doses, saying less than 50 million of the 700 million doses the program has promised this year have arrived in Africa.

“We are very far away from our target,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, said. “We don’t want to be seen as the continent of COVID … [In Europe] the stadiums are full of young people shouting and hugging. We can’t do that in Africa.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday confirmed the dire situation Africa is in as coronavirus cases have gone up for the past six weeks with only 1 percent of the continent being fully vaccinated. 

“The speed and scale of Africa’s third wave is like nothing we’ve seen before. The rampant spread of more contagious variants pushes the threat to Africa up to a whole new level,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.

The WHO previously said the “global community” is “failing” for withholding vaccines from Africa.