Much has been said about South Africa’s slow vaccine roll-out.
The government has blamed ‘vaccine nationalism’ and ‘vaccine apartheid’ for the slowness of South Africa’s roll-out.
For some context, the following is a list of countries and the percentage of their populations that have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
As you read through the list below, ask yourself if South Africa is better off or worse off on average than these countries.
A non-exhaustive list of countries that, as of 18 April, have vaccinated a greater proportion of their population than South Africa has. (According to Reuters, percentages have been rounded)
Bhutan 63%
Israel 60%
United Kingdom 49%
Chile 41%
United States 40%
Bahrain 37%
Hungary 33%
Serbia 26%
Canada 24%
Singapore 19%
Austria 19%
Germany 19%
Belgium 19%
Spain 19%
Portugal 18%
Italy 17%
Netherlands 17%
Ireland 16%
Poland 16%
Sweden 16%
Greece 16%
Czech Republic 15%
Turkey 14%
Switzerland 14%
Croatia 13%
Morocco 12%
Argentina 12% (A country facing extreme economic problems)
Cyprus 12%
Brazil 11%
Latvia 9%
Mexico 8%
India 7% (Population of 1 390 494 952 or 23 times larger than South Africa)
El Salvador 7% (Country with the highest rate of homicide per 100 000 people in the world, almost twice that of South Africa)
Cambodia 7%
Bulgaria 7%
Costa Rica 7%
Russia 6%
Jordan 5%
Colombia 5%
Sri Lanka 4%
Indonesia 3%
Bangladesh 3%
Palestine 3%
Bolivia 3%
Rwanda 3% (A country with approximately 1/8th the GDP per capita of South Africa.)
Lebanon 2%
South Korea 2%
Ghana 2% (Ghana has a GDP per capita of $1884.30, almost ¼ of South Africa’s.)
Eswatini 2%
Senegal 2%
Peru 2%
Malayisa 2%
New Zealand 2% (Despite New Zealand being almost Covid-free.)
Zimbabwe 2% (A country destroyed by hyper-inflation.)
Togo 2%
Myanmar 2% (A country currently embroiled in a military coup and several insurgencies.)
Khazakstan 1%
Botswana 1%
Malawi 1% (A country with 14 times less GDP per capita than South Africa.)
Kenya 1%
Ukraine 1% (A country currently at war with its neighbour, Russia)
Angola 0.8%
Lesotho 0.8%
Gambia 0.7%
Guinea 0.6%
South Africa 0.5%
A non-exhaustive list of countries that, as of 18 April, have vaccinated a lesser proportion of their population than South Africa has. (According to Reuters, percentages have been rounded)
Uganda 0.5%
Nigeria 0.5%
Ivory Coast 0.4%
Mozambique 0.2%
Sudan 0.2%
Zambia 0.1%
South Sudan 0.1%
Namibia 0.1%
Perhaps the problem isn’t ‘vaccine nationalism’.
[Image: Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay]
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