Zoey Liu / Staff reporter
As omicron cases rapidly increase, Canada is now in its fifth wave of pandemic according to the article Covid Update – Moving Through The Fifth Wave, written by Jacob Cardinal. Meantime, a lot of countries are grappling with the Omicron virus. The darkness before drawn seems to go on forever. This makes people think of the ultimate way of coping with the pandemic. In fact, there is one —- letting rich countries to share their surplus of the vaccine to developing countries to keep the global cases down and avoid any more potential variant of virus to be born and spread out.
According to We have enough Covid vaccines for most of the world. But rich countries are stockpiling more than they need for boosters, written by Olivia Goldhill, the G7 and EU together have a surplus of vaccines of nearly 1.39 billion, though the share of people fully vaccinated of these nations is above 50% according to the statistics and research Coronavirus (Covid-19) Vaccinations, sorted and written by Our World in Data. In Italy and France, about 75% people are fully vaccinated. In Japan, the percentage is even near 79%.
In contrast, only about 5% of people in low-income countries are fully vaccinated. In some developing countries like Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Papua New Guinea, the rate of full vaccinated is no more than 4%. The vaccine shortage is severe, and the demand for more vaccine is high, but unfortunately has not been satisfied yet.
As the Covid-19 vaccine is continuedly being produced, people are not worrying about the total supply anymore. A surplus of 1.39 billion vaccine is the best proof that humans, actually have enough resources to fight Covid-19. There is really an opportunity to nip the next global spread of the new virus in the bud by more people getting vaccinated to form a “vaccine barrier”.
Tracking back to the place where the Omicron virus was born — South Africa, where only about 27% of people are fully vaccinated, provided a perfect chance for Delta virus to expand, grow, and produce new virus among citizens, and that is exactly how the Omicron born and how the another global wave have started.
We cannot completely end the pandemic, as long as there are still countries having low vaccination rates, which leaves a space for the growth of Covid-19. Unfortunately, developing countries are generally not able to purchase a large amount of vaccine doses due to the financial hardships. Donations, or even a relatively affordable deal offered by rich countries can help a lot.
Sharing vaccine is the ultimate way to end the pandemic. If every nation gets enough vaccine supply for their citizens, the global cases and imported cases would eventually decrease by a large number. If people who are able and willing to get vaccinated can get vaccinated as they wish, instead of waiting for months, re-opening public locations and re-starting public events and activities would soon come true. If people all work together, the spread of the Omicron will be the last world-wide Covid-19 wave that we face up to, and going back to normal would soon be realistic —- no longer impossible for the whole world.
Sources:
Articles
Covid Update – Moving Through The Fifth Wave
Coronavirus (Covid-19) Vaccinations
Pictures
(Feature image) A bunch of Covid-19 vaccine doses, created by Braňo
Covid-19 vaccine, taken by Mika Baumeister
Preparing Covid-19 vaccine, taken by Mufid Majnun