Posted on 20 April 2021
This story is from the CID Weekly newsletter.
Restrictions on people’s movements based on whether they have received a COVID-19 vaccine are heightening concerns about inequities that have already been revealed or exacerbated by the pandemic, writes Andrew Green at Devex.
- Most people in the global south have not even been offered a vaccine
- Of the 841 million vaccine doses that had been administered by last week, only 0.1% had gone to people in low-income countries.
Blocking unvaccinated people from having access to goods and knowledge, while people from higher-income countries get a jumpstart on recovery, will only exacerbate the global divide between rich and poorer countries.
It potentially creates an 'apartheid' within countries too, with unvaccinated people being barred from restaurants, shops, gyms, and public spaces
"It could also fuel a rise in efforts to fake the passports, like the underground market in counterfeit yellow fever certificates that exists in Nigeria’s Lagos airport, where fake cards cost as little as $8.50," reports Devex.
Some are calling for vaccine passports to be rejected. Others point to the yellow-fever vaccinations required by some countries (with the distinctive yellow cards) which has worked well. But only because the yellow-fever vaccine - unlike the COVID vaccine - is easily available to most people.