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In some countries such as Tanzania and Chad the vaccination drives have not even begun says this report in the DW.com. A new surge now underway in Africa as cases increase by 30% in June comes at abad time with African vaccination drives stalled. Only 31 million doses adminstered in Africa for a population of 1 billion people. Less than 1% of world vaccine supplies are going to poor countries in Africa and Latin America.

Vaccine companies chose to sell their vaccines to the highest bidders, putting Covax  behind. Aims of Covax are also coming down and watered down to vaccinating 20% or 30% of the population in poor countries, says this report in DW.com.

This means new variants could develop and move back to Asia and Europe, the US in 2022. It means the coronavirus could affect African economies in 2022 and beyond.

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Stephanie Nolan's reports from Africa provide the few glimpses one can get today of the situation in Africa where variants are growing as a result of lack of vaccines (vaccine inequality) and the faltering vaccination drive, shortage of medicine and food supplies. Her report from South Africa showed how healthworkers and scientists in South Africa are working hard on the frontlines. This one from Zambia looks at the vaccination centers and vaccination workers as vaccination drives falter. The African continent with 1.4 billion people received 404 million doses. Today only 7% of the population is vaccinated in Zambia and the rest of Africa. People in Zambia do not have car transport so they have to walk 3-6 kilometres to get to a vaccination center, when they turn up at a center and it is out of vaccines they stop coming. Other problems are the social media accounts that show the vaccination drives as harmful to people, or CNN and other news that talk about blood clots that when carefully understood affect a tiny fraction of people. There are other issues also. Ida Musonda, a nurse in a clinic near Lusaka says after not many people turned up that she should go to markets and churches, but says there is no fuel for the vehicle to get clinic workers there. Bernadette Kawango is shown with her children. She works at an auto parts store and lives in a low income neighborhood in the edge of Lusaka. She ignores all the social media accounts that scare people from vaccines, yet she says she worries more about cholera, TB and malaria, and also HIV, AIDS. And she does not know anybody diagnosed with coronavirus.  The result is that there is vaccine shortage resulting in a kind of vaccine indifference (why walk miles to a center if it may not have vaccines), compounded by other problems such as the other diseases that also pose a threat in Africa, and the low incomes in a shrinking economy. And with about 8% vaccinated in Africa, the problem of variants can only be tackled by consistent and not erratic supply of vaccines. ...

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From now on the vaccination program in India will be run nationally by the federal government. This will ensure fair access to vaccines to all parts of the Indian population. Earlier vaccine costs were bid up as states and private hospitals bid up prices. Under the new national program 75% of vaccines will be given out by the federal government and 25%  by private hospitals and other private health institutions. The government in New Delhi under prime minister Modi will offer adults free vaccinations. Modi said "We will increase the speed of procuring vaccines and also increase the pace of the vaccination program." Even in private hospitals the cost of vaccine will be kept at Rupees 150 or $2.06. Experts say this is the right policy and the government has learned from errors in letting states and other private institutions run vaccine policy, which made it too fragmented and subject to too many variables, resulting in inequity, and slowing vaccination drives. The Supreme Court stepped in asking for clarity, leading to the clear policy from the federal government announced today.  Advantage of the new policy is that the responsibility lies in one place, and the federal government also has the clout to make things happen, to negotiate with companies and other parties involved effectively. India has vaccinated 222 million people but because of the population being so large at 1.2 billion this comes out to be a small fraction of the population. This puts the task of getting vaccine supplies and getting the vaccination drives to work in the only place that has the determination and the resources to deliver results by vaccinating 1.2 billion people by December 2021. It has never been done before in history says Mr. Modi, and it is a challenge that India is now taking up for itself and for the global community. It also lays the ground for India to help its neighbors in Asia and in Africa, Latin America in 2022.   ...

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The lack of vaccine supplies in Africa and Latin America, parts of Asia, is a major problem in 2021. Of the 66 million doses of vaccine planned to be given to Africa under COVAX plan only 19 million have been delivered. In total about 49 million doses have been delivered. Vaccine shortages are a result of the huge wave of coronavirus in India in April, so that vaccine shipments from India have stalled. Of the countries in Africa a few have made some progress- Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria. Other problems in Africa are lack of trained people to give vaccination. Last week 2.3 billion dollars in additional funds were raised at a donor conference for COVAX, the initiative for poor countries vaccines. That is enough to buy 1.8 billion doses. US and UK have not exported vaccines. India has made a good start in shipping vaccines to many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America as shown in the Ministry of External Affairs website of the Indian government. For India to do this once it meets its own needs and resume exports, vaccine patent protection needs to be lifted for sometime, which the US is now accepting. ...

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India plans to vaccinate 300 million people in the first drive of the vaccination campaign. The two vaccines approved are the Covishield from Astra Zeneca partnership with Serum Institute of India, and the Bharat Biotech vaccine. India is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world, and its vaccination production and campaign is being watched closely.  The largest maker of vaccines is Serum Institute of India based in Pune. Countries that are seeking India's help in vaccines are Brazil, South Africa, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh. Brazil has ordered 1.5 million vaccine doses. The Indian government has approved sending vaccines to other governments. Price of 100 million doses to be supplied by Serum Institute to the Indian government is 200 rupees a dose or about $2.73 a dose. Vaccine sold in private markets will be priced at 2000 rupees a dose. Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech have stockpiled 70 million doses. ...

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A Kyodo News poll shows about 60% of Japanese want the Olympic games cancelled. Japan faces another wave of the pandemic with a surge in Osaka and other cities. The government's handling of the pandemic is disapproved by 71% of Japanese in a Kyodo News poll. Over 80% are unhappy with the slow vaccine rollout.   India faces a surge in cases public dissatisfaction that is similar to Japan and other countries in Europe. France and Germany have a slow vaccine rollout. In India vaccination drive is affected by a lack of supplies as in France and Germany with shortages of vaccine. The European Union in April signed contracts for over a billion doses with Pfizer and India has plans for ramped up supply of its Covishield and Covaxin vaccines to 2 billion doses by December 2021. This shows how difficult it is for advanced countries and major pharmaceutical producing countries such as as India to vaccinate their populations quickly in the initial stages of the vaccination effort. In July the vaccine effort would be in its 7th month and vaccine supply constraints are expected to ease as a result of aggressive action by governments in EU, France, Germany and India. This will also enable addressing needs in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. ...

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The Hindu data team looks at the Indian vaccination drive with graphs by state and progress by dates. During the first 10 days of June the vaccination drive has been stepped up. It is now over 3 million a day and at this rate should reach 400 million vaccinated by the end of July, 100 million below target. For the remainder of the year vaccine supplies have to be pushed up so that 8 million doses can be given each day. This would get India to where everyone in the country of 1.2 billion has been vaccinated by Dec 31, 2021. This would make it possible for India to then use its technology and large manufacturing capacity to help other nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America in 2022. This is the first time in history that India has taken on a challenge of this size and complexity. The vaccine strategy has changed to where the federal government is taking over the overall responsibility of coordinating the production of vaccines in the country and providing access to vaccines from other countries. Federal government is also taking on overall responsibility for distribution of vaccines and setting up the logistical effort. Vaccine supply is being opened up by opening India to multiple vaccines including Pfizer, Moderna, and other vaccines. Production of Covaxin is being stepped up. This strategy is designed to get India to somewhere closer to the 8 million doses a day needed and to ensure distribution and logistical efforts are in place. More resources are put into the effort. The speed of economic recovery also depends on the vaccination drive. Lessons were learned during the second wave in May 2021 and the government is better prepared for the hard work ahead. ...

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This report in The Guardian says what India urgently needs is for the US to lift export restrictions on supplies for India's vaccine factories, and tools such as genome sequencing to identify and control emerging variants of the coronavirus.

The report also points out that of the 1 billion vaccine jabs about half are in the US and Europe and the low income countries have only a tiny fraction of vaccinations. India which sent 64 million vaccine doses to countries including Brazil and Morocco, Bangladesh, in 3 months prior is reported to have sent only 1.2 million doses this month.

The crisis in India also shows the need says The Guardian for an international approach to the crisis no a country by country approach. It says the Bush plan for Aids and the the 2014 plan for Ebola in West Africa are models of an international approach that is needed now.

 

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The International Monetary Fund estimates global growth in 2021 at 5.5%. It also says that government support to support the economic recovery is essential calling for the strong stimulus being done in the U.S., Europe, Japan, India and other countries.

The IMF also cautions that everything depends on controlling the pandemic. There is special concern for countries in Africa and Latin America where vaccine supplies are needed.

The chief economist of the IMF, Gita Gopinathan, says India will see growth of 11.5% in 2021. The head of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, says India has acted quickly to control the pandemic, considering the size of the population and its density.  The vaccination drive with 2.3 million healthcare workers vaccinated and 300 million to be vaccinated in the first part of the campaign, Georgieva says shows that steps are being taken for a strong recovery in 2021.

 

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US secretary of state Anthony Blinken meets Indian foreign minister Jaishankar, and prime minister Modi in New Delhi. India and the US are working together on how to make vaccine supplies accessible and affordable in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. To promote the vaccination drive in India the US announced an additional $25 million to the $200 million announced earlier, during Anthony Blinken's visit to New Delhi. Post pandemic economic recovery was also a subject of discussions. Blinken thanked Jaishankar for collaborative discussion on many points, including security in the Indo-Pacific region. He went on to say that "the US welcomes India's emergence as a leading global power." Blinken also said that the future in the 21st century will be written in the Indo-Pacific region.  Blinken thanked Jaishankar for the collaborative discussions on many topics, including trade and economy, and how to promote greater bilateral investments to deepen commercial ties. ...

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Jenny Strasbourg of the WSJ provides this much needed report from London about the courageous decision by AstraZeneca and Oxford University to give vaccines away at no profit to the whole world, to billions of people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Without this brave decision by a British company and a British University the world would be a lot poorer, more variants could have happened, making us realize the great contribution Britain has made and how indispensable it is to the planet. Add to this the effort of Indian companies including Serum Institute that provided the manufacturing facilities and capabilities for making most of the British vaccine. AstraZeneca delivered 2.3 billion doses of the vaccine globally as of mid-December, according to the company. The International Monetary Fund estimates that low and middle income countries received 3.25 billion vaccines as of Dec. 11, About half of this or 1.6 billion doses were Astra Zeneca shots. This is a bigger share than any other vaccine by far and a life saver to the world. AstraZeneca stepped up early in a true to the best ideals in Britain to meet the needs of the world-  aiming to deliver 3 billion doses in 2022 and sell them at no profit as long as the pandemic continues. As the shot does not need cold storage it is ideal for India and other Asia, Africa and Latin America. "We are all very proud throughout the company of the impact we have had," says AstrZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot. By far the biggest manufacturing was done at Serum Institute of India which supplied 1.3 billion doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to 70 countries. Mr. Modi pushed forward the export of vaccine made in India to the world from the beginning in the same spirit of cooperation and the best ideals that Britain was living upto. Serum Institute can produce as much as 250 million doses of vaccine a month making it possible for India to tackle the vaccination population of 1.3 billion people.   None of this could have happened without Oxford University and AstraZeneca and Indian companies with Mr. Modi's active support living up to the best ideals of Britain and India for the world. "When you add up the benefits to humanity, I think you'll find the vaccine holds up pretty well in terms of the ill health it has prevented, and the deaths it has prevented," says John Bell, a senior Oxford academic who in 2020 guided the University through its vaccine-partnership talks with Astra Zeneca. Because in the real world AstraZeneca shot has held up so well it is also a choice for booster shots. ...