Vaccination against Covid-19: Latin America and the Caribbean are poor

The issue of inequality in anticovid-19 vaccines is nothing foreign to all of us citizens of this century, nor the havoc that SARS-CoV-2 has caused and continues to wreak on the most vulnerable and even those who have already been vaccinated.

It’s really a rather cliched topic, which is the call for international organizations like the United Nations, within it, the World Health Organization, and other organizations and institutions to finally bring the epidemic to an end.

However, the news again is how the vaccination rate in Latin America and the Caribbean is still very low. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) recently ranked Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in Latin America and the Caribbean as the most deprived.

The Pan American Health Organization reports that the full vaccination rate is only 39 percent in this region. As Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, described, even six countries in this area have not even raised 20 percent of their populations from the novel coronavirus.

The article by Deutsche Welle, the German news outlet, explained that all these lagging countries start with the uneven distribution of doses, as well as specific problems for each. For example, Guatemala suffered from a severe shortage of injections, which delayed the vaccination campaign.

On the other hand, resistance to vaccination by a large part of the population constitutes a barrier preventing vaccination rates from continuing to rise. For PAHO, this point is a fact with a negative impact, and it should be noted that it is not a typical phenomenon in the region.

However, for the PAHO senior leadership, it is encouraging that “26 of the 51 countries and territories in the Americas already have 40 percent or more of their populations immune to the coronavirus.” Cuba is an exceptional case in its vaccination, starting with the manufacture of its own vaccines.

Currently, the Greater Antilles is in talks with the World Health Organization so that the Sovereign 02 and Plus vaccines, as well as Abdala, can be approved, thus directing forms of marketing so that they can be accessed by those most affected.

In general, in the region, the number of Covid-19 patients has decreased, as well as the number of deaths, although, according to DW, there is still a peak in some countries. In the Midwest and Alaska in the United States, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Belize and Barbados, the indicator is high today.