religious london: faith in a global city

In an article for the Guardian, Williams says the G7 must act to end “vaccine apartheid”. The faith leaders call for countries to release excess doses, saying “if one part of the world is left to suffer the pandemic, all parts of the world will be put at ever-increasing risk.” Most Covax supplies to African countries have been coming from India, but the Delhi government has restricted exports in the face of its own mounting crisis. Rwanda, Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Tunisia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and Botswana have exhausted their initial supplies. The UN-backed Covax initiative has so far delivered 18m vaccine doses to 41 African countries. Less than 1% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa had been vaccinated by mid-April. India, which is being overwhelmed by the virus, is running out of vaccines for its population despite being a large manufacturer.Ĭountries in Africa are also running out of supplies of Covid vaccines, and there is concern over the availability of further doses, according to the World Health Organization. Critics had accused the federal government of stockpiling vaccines while other countries have extremely limited supplies.

Their call – in conjunction with the People’s Vaccine Alliance – came as the White House announced the US will share up to 60m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other countries in the coming months. We have a moral obligation to everyone in every country.” The faith leaders say: “We cannot abdicate our responsibilities to our sisters and brothers by imagining that the market can be left to resolve the crisis or pretend to ourselves that we have no obligation to others in our shared humanity. They want leaders at next month’s G7 meeting to commit to taking all necessary steps to ensure a global programme of vaccination as “a global common good”.

Religious london: faith in a global city