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In an interview with CNN’s Richard Quest, Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong spoke about the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in Africa, saying the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will still “pay a major role” in the continent’s fight against coronavirus despite questions over how it affects regional variants.
“What we’ve done in the spirit of providing guidance to the countries is to say that if the variant in South Africa is predominant, then the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be applied – it should be used elsewhere on the continent,” Nkengasong said. “But we remain confident that the AstraZeneca vaccine will play a major role in our vaccination program across the continent.”
This comes after South Africa said it plans to share one million unwanted doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other countries in the African Union after preliminary trial data suggested the vaccine provided only “minimal protection” against mild and moderate Covid-19 from the variant first identified in South Africa.
Nkengasong also warned that “vaccine passport” schemes imposed by Western countries could impact travel to Africa and exacerbate inequality.
“One of our greatest concern is that the vaccine situation will continue to exacerbate the inequality gap that exists in the world, especially the north-south divide,” Nkengasong said.
“And my greatest fear also is that once the U.S. and Europe gets their vaccines they’ll begin to impose the need to have a vaccine certificate to travel, and that will become extremely complicated for Africans to travel across the world. That is why we should ask a collective of the continent, and of course in partnership with the developed world, to make sure that Africa has timely access to vaccines to make its vaccination targets.”
FULL TRANSCRIPT
RICHARD QUEST, HOST OF QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: But the reason, of course, I’m here today is, well, Africa needs vaccines. The number of vaccines that have been given by the international agency of COVAX, along with donations from China or Russia, are, frankly, pathetically small compared to the number that the continent needs.
And I discussed this with the head of the African CDC who joined me this morning. And I pointed out to him that, at the end of the day, they were dealing in the 100,000 here, a couple of hundred thousand there, and what they really needed for Africa was millions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN NKENGASONG, DIRECTOR, AFRICA CDC: Our target is to get to 60 percent in two years, but we’ve also set a sub-target that requires that we immunize up to about 35 to 40 percent of our population in 2021, if we have a chance, to be ahead of the pandemic.
QUEST: So what do you need? COVAX is obviously the principal vehicle through which South Africa is getting their vaccines. What more do you need?
NKENGASONG: Remember that COVAX is screened to supply us with at least 25 percent of the vaccines that we need. We have also, as a continent, established what we call the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, which we are striving to get supplementary doses of vaccines. And we’ve secured in — close to about 500 million doses of vaccines.
As I indicated, in the next week or so, we’ll start the distribution. So, if you add the efforts from COVAX and those from the AVAC, the African immune initiative (ph), I think that will make us begin to make some very good progress.
QUEST: And we talk about the South African variant now, which is worrying because it seems to be – the vaccines seem to be less effective. Is the South African variant the one that you’re expecting to be the predominant variant in Africa?
NKENGASONG: We – the simple answer is, we don’t know. I mean, what we know is what we have documented, which is that the variant that – it was initially described in South Africa. We also now know that the variants from the so called – the U.K. variant has also been identified in some parts of Africa.
Now, we really don’t know the dynamics of how these variants will evolve over time. In terms of, will there be new variants, we just don’t know. In terms of, will these variants overtake the pandemic in other African countries, we just don’t know.
But what we’ve done in the spirit of providing guidance to the countries is to say that if the variant in South Africa is predominant, then the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be applied, it should be used elsewhere on the continent.
But we remain confident that the AstraZeneca vaccine will be – play a major role in our vaccination program across the continent.
QUEST: The number one problem here seems to be that a worsening bipolar world, the haves and the have-nots, is going to get worse. The – as Europe and the developed world and the U.S. all reach some form of immunity, and life gets something back to normal, Africa, through no fault of its own, is going to be hamstrung for some years.
NKENGASONG: That is absolutely one of our greatest concerns, that the vaccine situation will continue to exacerbate the gap – the inequality gap that exists in the world – especially the north-south divide.
And my greatest fear also is that once the U.S. and north – and Europe gets their vaccines they’ll begin to impose the need to have a vaccine certificate to travel, and that will become extremely complicated for Africans to travel across the world.
And I think that is why we should ask a collective of the continent, and of course in partnership with the developed world, make sure that Africa has timely access to vaccines to make its vaccination targets.
