The world’s richest countries are on track to accumulate over 1 billion more doses of COVID-19 vaccines than they need to fully vaccinate all their citizens, according to new analysis from ONE’s Policy team.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world has only been able to secure 2.5 billion doses of the most promising vaccines - leaving billions of people with little hope of receiving a vaccine this year. These excess doses purchased by rich countries alone would be sufficient to vaccinate the entire adult population of Africa.
"The leaders of wealthy nations will not be doing any favors for their own citizens or the rest of the world if they stockpile vaccines. If the virus can thrive in any part of the world, the risk of new variants increases, and it is only a matter of time before strains emerge that undermine the vaccines and tools that have been developed to fight COVID-19," the report reads.
