'Pay up your money': Africa's COVID-19 envoy blasts EU, COVAX over vaccine crisis

The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent lashed out at Europe as Africa struggles to cope with a crushing third surge of infections.

Strive Masiyiwa said on Thursday that not a single dose or a vial had left a European factory for Africa. Taking aim at the global effort meant to distribute vaccines to low-and middle-income countries, the envoy accused COVAX of withholding crucial information including that key donors had not received funds as promised.

“The situation could be very different had we known back in December that the help was not coming as we had to do for yourselves,” Masiyiwa told reporters, adding that “many countries were just sitting back saying, ‘the vaccines are coming.' ... We as Africans are disappointed."

The criticism shed light on the world's dramatic vaccine divide, with Masiyiwa describing that vaccinated, unmasked Europeans were attending football matches while just 1% of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

He stressed that Africa has purchased 400 million vaccine doses and can buy more, but he challenged donors, “Pay up your money... We will no longer measure pledges. We will measure vaccines arriving at our airports.”

Africa reels under coronavirus crisis

The African continent of 1.3 billion people is now in the grip of an “extremely aggressive” third surge of infections, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong said. The continent is struggling with overflowing COVID-19 wards, dangerous shortages of oxygen and a growing spread of the virus to extremely vulnerable and unequipped rural areas.

Masiyiwa said COVAX had promised to deliver 700 million vaccine doses to Africa by December. But at mid-year, Africa has received just 65 million doses overall. Less than 50 million doses via COVAX have arrived.

“We are very far away from our target,” Nkengasong said. “We don’t want to be seen as the continent of COVID ... (In Europe) the stadiums are full of young people shouting and hugging. We can’t do that in Africa.”

However, he and Masiyiwa announced that the first shipments of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines with US support will begin arriving next week. It was not clear how many doses would be in those first shipments. Meanwhile, more African-purchased doses will arrive in August, Masiyiwa said.

The African continent has reported 5.5 million COVID-19 infections thus far and witnessed a “remarkable" 23% increase in deaths over the past week, the Africa CDC director said.

He said the continent needs 1.6 billion doses in a double-dose regime, or 800 million for a single-dose regime, to meet the goal of vaccinating 60% of the population.

Giving a frank account of where global efforts had sputtered, Masiyiwa said, “It became pretty clear by December that the hope that we would all as a global community buy vaccines together through COVAX was not being adhered to, particularly by the rich and powerful nations,” he said.

COVAX aimed to provide 20% of Africa's vaccine needs, with African nations stepping up for the rest, he said. But “it really doesn’t matter how much money your country has, they couldn’t buy vaccines... I never saw presidents try so hard, calling chief executives."

The African continent has relied on the vaccine manufacturing capabilities of other nations, but the COVID-19 vaccine crisis has jolted African leaders into pursuing their own production power.

Laying out the challenges in immunization, Masiyiwa said: Vaccine suppliers require advance purchases, and the World Bank could only lend to countries once vaccines are available. African nations scrambled via the Africa Export-Import Bank, owned by member states, to come up with some $2 billion. African countries created a purchasing platform to improve their buying power. But the vaccines have been hard to find as countries with manufacturing capabilities imposed controls on export sales in the interest of vaccinating their own citizens first.

EU doesn't trust Indian vaccines?

Hitting out at Europe, the envoy said, “When we go to talk to their manufacturers, they tell us they're completely maxed out meeting the needs of Europe. They refer us to India.” But the European Union now imposes public health restrictions on people vaccinated with Covishield, which is the Indian-produced version of the EU-accepted AstraZeneca vaccine.

“So how do we get to the situation, where they give money to COVAX, who go to India to purchase vaccines, and then they tell us those vaccines are not valid?” Masiyiwa said. “It's self-evident where the problem is.”

Some countries engage in so-called vaccine diplomacy and those bilateral donations are welcome, he said, but they're not enough to “move the needle.”

(With inputs from agency)