Vaccine nationalism is one of the greatest challenges standing in the way of a global equitable response to COVID-19.  Because this pandemic knows no borders, delivering vaccines to everyone, everywhere, is crucial to stopping the spread of the virus; yet most rich nations are hoarding doses for their own populations, often with devastating consequences on the rest of the world.

As of April 2021, while half of the US population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, it is estimated that poor countries won’t achieve widespread vaccination coverage before 2023.

A few countries have pledged to donate safe and effective vaccines to low- and middle-income countries via COVAX, the vaccine pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, but the global vaccine equity track record remains abysmal. Most rich nations have bought enough jabs to vaccinate their population multiple times over, hindering their availability and putting the world at risk of facing new vaccine-resistant strains.

Global Citizen spoke with Eloise Todd, one of the co-founders of the Pandemic Action Network, about the importance of sharing vaccine doses to overcome COVID-19 once and for all. Todd, whose network consists of around 100 organizations working to help end this pandemic and prevent the next as quickly as possible, stressed the need to combat vaccine stockpiling to build a fairer world in the long term.

Read the full article about vaccine nationalism by Sarah El Gharib at Global Citizen.