The Geography of COVID Vaccine Access and Uptake in Africa

Keywords: COVID, Vaccine, Africa, Inequality, Political economy
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 29

Abstract

The World Health Organization target of fully vaccinating 10% of every country’s population by 30 September is unattainable to most African countries. Whereas 66% of the population has been fully vaccinated in the UK, with about 62% in the EU, and 55% in the US, only 4.4% of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated. In fact, only 15 of Africa’s 54 countries have achieved the 10% target and half of the countries have vaccinated less than 2% of their population and Burundi and Eritrea - have yet to roll out vaccination programs.

This paper examines the geography of COVID vaccine coverage across Africa. Using secondary data from multiple sources, we show that spatial differences in vaccination access and uptake reflect broader issues of availability, political economy of vaccines, and cross-government and intergovernmental cooperation in vaccine availability and acquisition. Our findings suggest that concerted effort is necessary to improve vaccine coverage because from the reservoirs in African countries, new variants could emerge to threaten the rest of the world.