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Mmsh350

COVID-19 And Vaccine Nationalism: Africas Pathway To Access

Except perhaps South Africa, credible statistics on the extent of the COVID-19 infection in African countries are lacking. Hypotheses on the rapid degradation of the virus in tropical settings have yet to be proven as COVID-19 ravages the continent. The ongoing upsurge in COVID-19 infections in India and Brazil forebodes an ominous signal for Africa and indeed the rest of the developing world. So far, African countries could not sustain two full months of lockdown. Unlike the rest of the developed world, there were no significant palliatives for ordinary citizens, let alone businesses or corporations. While industrialised countries compute their GDP contraction arising from COVID-19 in the range of 10%, virtually all of Africa is faced with the stark reality of an upward of 20% drop in their GDP and a total rollback of economic progress of the past two decades. For a continent where over 80% of economic activity is driven by the hand-to-mouth informal sector, continued freezing of economic activity without options would risk political rupture.