Priorities for global access to life-saving interventions during public health emergencies: Crisis nationalism, solidarity or charity?

ABSTRACT

Access to COVID-19-vaccines by the global poor has unveiled the impact of global health and scientific inequities on access to life saving interventions during public health emergencies (PHE). Despite calls for global solidarity to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, wealthy countries both in the north and southern hemisphere may find a charity-based approach more appealing and are using the opportunity to forge neo-colonial cooperation ties with some African countries. Solidarity is undoubtedly an ideal equity-based principle of public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). However, its application may be wanting especially as crisis nationalism is more likely to inform the public health policy of any country during a PHEIC, even when they are strong advocates of global solidarity. African countries, on the other hand, must re-appraise their heavy reliance on international aids during PHE and recognise the importance of boosting their epidemic preparedness including research and translation of its findings to practice.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 vaccines
• global solidarity
• charity
• crisis nationalism
• Africa

Acknowledgements

Samuel Ujewe carried out this work while affiliated with GET-Africa. He is now Senior Research Ethics Advisor at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Muhammed O. Afolabi is a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Working Group on COVID-19 Vaccines. The views expressed in this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the CIHR or the Government of Canada or the WHO SAGE Working Group on COVID-19 Vaccines.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Nchangwi S. Munung is supported by an NIH-National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant to the Sickle Africa Data Coordinating Center-SADaCC [grant number: U24HL135600]. Muhammed O. Afolabi is supported by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship scheme (MR/S03286X/1).