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Vaccine diplomacy is at the center of European Council President Charles Michel’s three-day trip to Rwanda and Kenya this week. While EU leaders and European citizens are understandably frustrated by vaccine procurement setbacks, the vaccine protectionism trap, into which the bloc appears to be in danger of falling, would do long-term reputational damage. term. Although Michel stated that “we will not be safe until everyone is safe” and pointed out the economic consequences of the uneven distribution of vaccines and inoculation, this smart diplomacy must also be backed by concrete facts and actions. The first batches of COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX scheme have started arriving in sub-Saharan Africa, but without an additional push, it is unlikely that East African countries will be able to vaccinate a significant proportion of their populations by the end of this period. year. For example, the Kenyan government expects to have vaccinated 30% of its population by the end of June 2023, while Rwanda hopes to reach 30% by the end of 2021.
Despite the rhetoric of Russia and China, their vaccine diplomacy has flattered to deceive. Shipments of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine have reached Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and a handful of other countries, but not in large quantities. So there is a real opportunity here for the EU, especially in the context of its plans to establish a “strategic partnership” with the African continent. France and Portugal have promised to send excess supplies of vaccines to African countries and the Commission should encourage others to do the same. This is happening in the context of a recent dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) when its wealthiest members blocked a push from more than 80 developing countries on Wednesday (March 10) to give up patent rights in a effort to boost COVID-19 production. vaccines for poor nations. South Africa and India renewed their offer to waive the rules of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), a move that could allow generic or other manufacturers to make more vaccines.
But while his proposal was backed by dozens of largely developing countries at the WTO, Western countries opposed it, including Britain, Switzerland, EU nations and the United States, which have large domestic pharmaceutical industries. Western nations argue that the protection of intellectual property rights fostered research and innovation and that suspending those rights would not result in a sudden increase in the supply of vaccines. “The vaccine race is on as countries around the world seek to protect their people from coronavirus and get their economies moving,” Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi recently wrote. “North America has enough doses to fully vaccinate the region twice, while other countries have ordered enough doses to vaccinate their populations four or five times as many, which many have condemned as ‘vaccine stacking.’ There are only enough vaccines for about a third of its population and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has warned that only 0.1% of the vaccine doses administered so far have been in the 1950s. poorest countries in the world ”.
