Canadians are asked to each contribute $25 to provide COVID-19 vaccines to people living in 92 low-and middle-income countries. The UN Children’s agency UNICEF has teamed up with Love My Neighbour, a Canadian movement that advocates and raises money for global vaccine equity.
As the world surpasses one billion doses of vaccine administered only 20 million have been delivered to African Countries. UNICEF Canada has called on high-income countries like Canada to consider donating at least five per cent of their doses immediately.
A donation of $25 would provide everything need to deliver a two-dose vaccine to someone in a low- or middle-income country, says UNICEF. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Moral and business imperatives argued
Scientists have argued that beside the moral imperative of providing access to vaccines for all, it is in the wealthy countries’ best interests to do it. They say that the more the virus circulates the more chances are that it will mutate and possibly change enough to circumvent current vaccines. On the business side, circulating COVID-19 infections are bad for supply chains and they disrupt trade. And the lack of vaccines can increase poverty which, in turn, can increase conflict.
A Canadian who donates $25 would provide everything needed for UNICEF to assure production and delivery of a two-dose vaccine, says the charity. This would include everything from obtaining the vaccine from the manufacturer to getting it into the arms of people in some of the hardest places to reach in the world. It would include the cost to transport the vaccines, protecting the cold chain needed for their transportation, the training of health workers and provisions to safely dispose of waste.
‘We must be better neighbours’
This project aims to obtain funding for doses over and above the two billion doses that are expected from COVAX. That is the global mechanism to provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in 2021.
“We hope every Canadian will agree that we can all play a role in ensuring that COVID-19 vaccines are affordable and accessible to all countries. We must be better neighbours,” said Sara Hildebrand, a director with the Love My Neighbour project. “We want to cross the COVID-19 immunity line side-by-side and write this pandemic ending together.”
Canada has contributed up to $251 million to the COVAX effort and says it is its second-largest financial supporter.
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