Strive Masiyiwa - The African Mirror

Sep

2021

African Union slams vaccine manufacturers

THE African Union has accused manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines of denying African countries a fair chance to buy them and urged manufacturing countries - in particular India - to lift export restrictions on vaccines and their components. "Those manufacturers know very well that they never gave us proper access," Strive Masiyiwa, AU Special Envoy for COVID-19, told a World Health Organization briefing from Geneva. "We could have handled this very differently." Out of 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines administered around the world so far, only 2% have been in Africa. Masiyiwa stressed that, in aiming to vaccinate 60% of…

Aug

2021

By The African Mirror

African Union’s J&J vaccine shipments begin

COVID-19

MAGGIE FICK AFRICAN Union officials have revealed that the body had begun shipping COVID-19 vaccine doses acquired from Johnson & Johnson, but they raised alarm at the pace of total deliveries to a region where only 1.5% of people are fully vaccinated. The AU's COVID special envoy Strive Masiyiwa said the start of the J&J shipments marked a step forward for the continent of more than 1.3 billion people, but in a news conference, he called Africa's situation regarding vaccine deliveries a "crisis". Africa remains in the grip of a third wave of the pandemic, and in the past four…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 shows why Africa’s reliance on outsiders for health services is a problem

HEALTH

THE COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced several truths about the detrimental effects of Africa being over-reliant on western and international stakeholders to solve its health challenges and using western solutions to Africa’s health problems. FRANCISCA MUTAPI, Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity. and co-Director of the Global Health Academy, University of Edinburgh The continent has suffered heavily from the global COVID-19 supply chain crisis. Competitive procurement by governments with deeper pockets has hiked prices of vaccines while national export controls on essential commodities and raw materials have blocked access. These effects were recently highlighted by the African Union special envoy,…