Africa should prepare for another round of exploitation as available statistics on the rate of demand for covid-19 vaccine so far shows that economically advanced countries are already hoarding the vaccine.
Canada has ordered covid-19 vaccine in excess of 10 per citizen
European Union has ordered covid-19 vaccine in excess of 3 per citizen
United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Israel and China are all making orders exceeding their populations’ demand in excesses of 3-5 per citizen.
Already, there is a climatic challenge for African countries as covid-19 vaccine needs to be stored in a temperature of minus (-) 70 degree celcius. It will therefore cost more in terms of logistics to get these vaccines to the continent.
Cost is another challenge as the pandemic has ‘crippled’ the economies of almost all countries in the African continent, so most African countries will have to borrow to buy them.
Obviously, these advanced countries hoarding the vaccine have Africa as a target for ‘philantrophic’ donation of these hoarded vaccines and will definitely use the covid-19 vaccine as a bargaining tool to make further exploitative demands on our leaders.
This is the unfortunate and sad reality of the nature of relations between Western countries (and countries like China & Russia) and Africa.
