The Herald:

First, some numbers, courtesy of the New York Times. As of this week 31 countries have a fully-vaccinated rate of less than 5%. The prospect of a booster jag in these countries is a mere fantasy.

Five of the least vaccinated nations are: Yemen (0.2%); Chad (0.3); South Sudan (0.4); Haiti (0.3); and Congo (0.1). Only 8.3% of the entire African continent has received at least one dose.

Overall, 50.1% of the world’s population have been vaccinated. Thus, the rich, greedy and cruel half are effectively telling the other half to go away and die.

Let’s look more closely at one of these nations. South Sudan has seen more than 2m refugees flee to neighbouring countries. A further 1.74million are displaced within South Sudan. Four years after the 2017 famine, 59% of the population (6.1m people) have insufficient access to food. The pre-Covid humanitarian response plan estimated that more than 7m people require urgent humanitarian assistance. This pattern of multi-deprivation is repeated across Africa.

In the UK we have come to assume that there is an inexhaustible supply of vaccines. No-one is worried about where their next dose is coming from.

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