Bait Al Amanah (House of Trust) published a new policy paper titled 'Global Vaccine Inequity: Should Malaysia do more?' authored by Benedict Weerasena, the Research Director of Bait Al Amanah and Abel Benjamin Lim, the Head of Development Economics of Bait Al Amanah.
The main findings and recommendations of the paper are as below:
Global Vaccine Inequity, which is defined as the injustice and unfairness in the roll-out of vaccines is hampering global socio-economic recovery.
Vaccine Inequity threatens to directly derail the progress made in achieving at least 13 out of 17 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A total of 72.1% of high-income country populations have been vaccinated with at least one dose as compared to a meagre 20.1% in low income countries as of early July 2022, magnifying the gross inequity. Approximately 2.7 billion people worldwide have not received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Factors contributing to vaccine inequity include vaccine affordability and availability and the inadequacy of health systems and the lack of manufacturing capacity in low income countries; in addition to vaccine nationalism and the drive for booster vaccinations in higher-income countries.
Vaccine inequity has delayed the socioeconomic recovery of many low income countries, further exacerbating inequalities between countries as higher-income countries project U-shaped recovery trajectories.
In line with Malaysia’s historical record of championing the plight of developing and least developed countries, Malaysia should do more to address vaccine inequity. This includes advocating for a stronger international coordinated response, increasing COVID-19 vaccine donations, expanding capacity-building vaccination efforts through the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) and sharing of effective vaccination communication strategies.
The full policy paper is attached below:
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