As the world continues to realign its approach and expectations in the wake of the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in South Africa last week, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) took the opportunity to renew calls for expanding U.S. vaccine aid to other nations.
“The emergence of the B.1.1.529. Omicron variant in South Africa is a deadly new threat to our efforts to end the pandemic and a disturbing reminder of the ongoing dangers posed by the potential emergence of new and vaccine-resistant COVID-19 variants,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. “It is imperative that the United States and our allies dramatically expand our global vaccination efforts to meet the scale of the threat. While the $1.3 billion in vaccine aid funding we passed in the House version of the Build Back Better Act will make a difference, that funding is only a step in the right direction for the much larger fight ahead.”
Krishnamoorthi, co-founder and co-chair of the COVID-19 Global Vaccination Caucus, pressed the Senate to go further with aid and aggressively increase funding allocated. Looking to South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, he noted that only 28.3 percent of South Africans have received at least one dose of a vaccine for COVID-19, leaving them woefully unprepared for current threats, let alone new ones.
The picture is even worse when Africa is examined on the whole: only 10.7 percent of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine. Worldwide, only 5.6 percent of the population of low-income countries has received the same, compared to high figures in high-income nations.
“Despite the success of vaccination programs across many of the world’s wealthiest countries, billions of people around the world have still not received a single dose, endangering their lives and contributing to the risks of new, deadlier outbreaks even in the most vaccinated countries,” Krishnamoorthi said. “So long as the COVID-19 virus and its variants are allowed to thrive anywhere due to low vaccination rates, the threat of the pandemic to the rest of the world remains.”
Without helping the poor, he stressed, the rich cannot ultimately be saved either. He previously called for an investment of $34 billion into global vaccine manufacturing and distribution to guarantee herd immunity in all 92 countries participating in the global COVAX facility, jointly run by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization to spur equitable vaccine distribution.