Rich countries have several hundred million doses of vaccines that could help fight an mpox outbreak in Africa, where donated shots fall far short of what is needed, according to a Reuters tally of public statements, documents and estimates from non-governmental organizations.
The shots have been stockpiled for years by countries such as Japan, the United States and Canada in case smallpox, an eradicated disease that is the more dangerous cousin of mpox, ever makes a comeback. Some of the vaccines were used outside of Africa in 2022 when mpox spread globally.
A small fraction of those doses could help curb what is now the biggest mpox outbreak on record in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries, disease experts say.
Fewer than 4 million doses have been pledged for donation out of an estimated 18 million to 22 million that are needed to vaccinate 10 million people in the next six months, depending on the vaccine, Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
I think that we know the answer to that don’t we?
We’ll keep hold of them in case we need them regardless of the fact that using them now would drastically reduce the chances of us needing them later.
That’s ignoring the humane reason for sharing because that won’t be considered relevant to any decision made.
It’s more cost effective and otherwise practical to just do the right things; but that wouldn’t be conducive to more profit, for a select few.