Australia's Fickleness on COVID Vaccines Perpetuating Global Vaccine Inequity

Strategic Insights -

As Prime Minister Scott Morrison assured Australians that their country was at the "front of the queue" for COVID-19 vaccines, data shows that Australia's vaccination rate ranks last in the OECD. However, the country is still ahead of many others, with developing nations struggling to vaccinate significant numbers of their people before 2023. The World Health Organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has described global vaccine inequity as a "catastrophic moral failure." Australia's approach to vaccines is not only harming its own people but also contributing to the global issue.

Key Takeaways:

  • Australia has international human rights obligations to protect the health and life of its people, including acquiring and administering vaccines.
  • The country also has obligations to facilitate access to vaccines for all, as stated by GAVI, leading the global COVAX vaccine initiative, "no one is safe until everyone is safe."
  • Global vaccine equity makes public health and economic sense for all countries, both rich and poor.
  • The main reason for vaccine inequity is the shortage of vaccines, where one nation's vaccine supply reduces the availability of doses for others.
  • The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights suggested that "vaccine nationalism" breached countries' human rights obligations by undermining equitable access to vaccines.
  • Rich countries negotiating deals for vaccine booster shots before poorer countries have achieved significant vaccination rates is a breach of their obligations to protect global human rights.
  • Australia has procured enough AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna doses to cover its entire population, but due to hesitancy and shifting official advice, it has fueled hesitancy in Australia and had an unintended impact on global vaccine supply.
  • The AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and highly effective, but due to negative inputs from medical professionals and the media, the reputation of the vaccine has been wrongly tarnished in Australia.
  • Australia is now rapidly commandeering more Pfizer doses, pushing other nations further down the vaccine queue, while eschewing its plentiful AstraZeneca supplies.

Statistics:

  • Australia's vaccination rate ranks last in the OECD, despite being ahead of many other nations.
  • South Africa is averaging over 10,000 new cases per day, with only about 4% of its population fully vaccinated.
  • The COVAX initiative aims to vaccinate 20% of the people in participating countries by the end of 2021, but is unlikely to reach this target due to vaccine scarcity.
  • Australia has advance-purchased enough Pfizer and Moderna doses to cover the entire population again.
  • The only vaccine currently available in large amounts in Australia is AstraZeneca, manufactured by CSL.

Sources:

  • The Conversation (Au and NZ) -- By Sarah Joseph, Professor of Human Rights Law, Griffith University
  • World Health Organization (WHO)
  • GAVI
  • United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  • Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI)
  • CSIRO
  • Contify.com