1. SOUNDBITE (English) Strive Masiyiwa, African Union Special Envoy on COVID-19:
"The fact of the matter is the EU has vaccine factories. It has vaccine production centers across Europe. Not a single dose, not one vial has left a European factory for Africa. OK, when we've gone to talk to their manufacturers, they tell us that they are completely maxed out, meeting the needs of Europe. We are referred to India, where a number of manufacturers exist that are manufacturing vaccines like the AstraZeneca vaccine under license because Europe has to decide, you know, you can't say you support us. They have vaccinated so many of their own people that they can now watch football without masks. OK, our people have not been vaccinated. Less than 1% of our population has been vaccinated. That is that is just the facts, OK? They don't need me to interpret them. OK? now is the time for Europe to open up its production facilities so that we can buy vaccines. We are not asking for donations. The fact we have money to buy vaccines, vaccines are not expensive, certainly not when it comes to the lives of our people. The poorest of the poor African countries have all stepped forward and paid deposits for us to buy vaccines. OK, but we need those European factories in the Netherlands, all those, Belgium, Italy, they must open them up and sell vaccines. We don't we didn't ask anyone for donation. So these are the facts."
2. SOUNDBITE (English) John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director:
"If we have a predictable supply of vaccines, the vaccines we will use, then we can defeat this pandemic. We can break the backbone of this pandemic at the end of next year. But if we do not do that, if the vaccines are not available to enable us vaccinate as feet and not care, then of course the unfortunate answer is that past next year will be moving towards endemicity of this virus on the continent and the consequences will be catastrophic. We don't want to see that. We don't want to be seen as a continent of COVID. If you recall, Europe has vaccinated a large chunk of its population and (in) the United States life is returning to normal. The European soccer championship is going on now, The European Cup. You can see that the stadiums are full with young people shouting and hugging and doing... We cannot do that in Africa. So if we do not vaccinate at speed, our economy will continue to damage. The death rate will continue to increase. You'll see (unintelligible) and the sick and it will be extremely difficult for us to survive as a people. Let us be very clear with that. That is what is at stake with all of us there. This is not an ordinary virus. This is a pandemic. This is a virus that mutates very quickly. It spreads very fast, and to put it very simply, the future of the outcome of this pandemic on the continent without vaccine is uncertain. It is unpredictable, except we have vaccine rollout a scale and at speed."
The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent criticised European suppliers on Thursday.
“Not one dose, not one vial, has left a European factory for Africa,” said Strive Masiyiwa.
The African continent of 1.3 billion people is now in the grip of an aggressive third surge of infections, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Just one percent of Africa's population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, John Nkengasong said.
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.
However, he and Masiyiwa announced that the first shipments of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines with U.S. support will begin arriving next week.
Africa has had 5.5 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and has seen a 23 percent increase in deaths over the past week, Nkengasong 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 percent of the population.
