Even as the World Health Organization (WHO) steps up its appeal to rich countries – collectively referred to as ‘the North’ to separate them for the greater number of poor countries – to stop hoarding COVID-19 vaccines, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries rated in the global rich/poor classification as part of the ‘South’, are calling for an urgent all-inclusive international forum to address the issue of the equitable distribution of vaccinations associated with pushing back the virus.
Earlier this week, news broke in the region that member countries of CARICOM, ill-equipped to compete with developed countries for acquisition of adequate quantities of the vaccination, want an international gathering to establish an arrangement under which access to the vaccination not be based on wealth and affluence, but on the recognition that COVID-19 represents a global challenge, a circumstance that ought to remove such discriminatory factors as affordability from the distribution equation.
CARICOM, the statement suggests, is worried that if countries in the ‘North’ persist in the “hoarding” of the vaccination, that is likely to place acquisition costs out of the reach of poor countries already challenged to address the various other costly repercussions of the advent of the pandemic.