COMMENT | Vaccine equity: Equal access to vaccines for all, really?

COMMENT | Vaccine equity - that's the new buzzword I'm hearing during the current Covid-19 crisis. What exactly are we talking about here? In early January 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a call to all countries to work together in solidarity and bring an end to the Covid crisis. Equal access to the vaccine for all.

In a perfect world, this would be the perfect call to action. It is at the heart of WHO's campaign for #VaccinEquity and nearly 1500 organisations around the world signed the #VaccinEquity Declaration. This sounds good, or does it?

Personally, the alarm bells started sounding off because of two specific incidents. Firstly, our Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin described the hoarding of vaccines by industrialised nations as immoral and lashed out at global vaccine inequity.

The other was when I read that more than 50,000 companies have registered over two million of their employees for vaccination under the Selangor state government's vaccine programme (Selvax).

The first statement highlights the immorality of vaccine inequity while the second statement seems acceptable with the proviso that it does not impinge on the rights of those who are not lucky enough to work with companies in Selangor or are so deeply entrenched within the Orang Asli settlements of our rainforests that they have no idea what is happening.

How does all this impact people like me, volunteering at ground zero in...