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 The region of some 660 million people has recorded almost 30% of the
world's 3.2 million COVID-19 deaths to date, despite being home to
just 8% of the world's population. While countries in Africa and
Asia also lag behind Europe and North America on inoculations,
health experts say Latin America's need for vaccines is the most
urgent.
The scarcity comes down to a few factors: high income countries
snapped up most of the available doses, and Latin American officials
have cited difficulties sealing deals for their own people. A plan
to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine locally has been hit by
delays, and suppliers like Russia have faced their own hold-ups.
Meanwhile, the global COVAX program to supply vaccines to poorer
countries has been bogged down by production glitches, a lack of
support from wealthy nations, and a recent move by India, the
biggest vaccine manufacturer, to curb exports.
With vaccine roll-outs lagging behind once ambitious plans,
coronavirus cases have soared, with intensive care units from
Argentina to Colombia filling up and death tolls hitting record
highs.
"There is a great sense of helplessness," said Elkin Gallego, whose
wife was waiting for an ICU bed in Colombian capital Bogota, where
health authorities say vaccine supplies are running out. "As a human
you just can't do anything."
Colombia, which has a population of around 50 million, has so far
distributed just over 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with
some 1.3 million people fully inoculated.
That is still far from the worst in the region. Honduras, Venezuela
and Nicaragua have given at least one dose to less than 1% of their
populations, a Reuters tally shows. In Peru and elsewhere the
scarcity is driving 'vaccine tourism' overseas.
The International Monetary Fund warned this month https://blogs.imf.org/2021/04/15/short-term-shot-and-long-term-healing-for-latin-america-and-the-caribbean
that the slow vaccine roll-out and resurgence of cases "cast a
shadow" on Latin America's near-term economic recovery prospects.
Regional leaders pushed for more vaccines in an Ibero-American
summit last week, while the director of the World Health
Organization's Americas arm, Carissa Etienne, said the regional
scarcity posed a global threat.
"Latin America is the region that currently has greatest need for
vaccines, this region should be prioritized for distribution of
vaccines," she said. "This is a global epidemic. No one will be safe
until we are all safe."
'BACK OF THE LINE'
In Paraguay, the scarcity of vaccines has angered locals, especially
the perceived slow arrival of doses via the COVAX program, co-led by
the WHO, which pulled out its representative in the country this
month amid rising criticism.
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"I believe neither we nor much of the world is satisfied with the
time and the amount of vaccines that we have been receiving,"
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo said last week.
According to a Reuters data tracker, Paraguay has administered
enough inoculations to give two doses to just 0.6% of its population
and at its current speed would take 454 days to vaccinate another
10%.
Peru is slightly ahead at 371 days, while Bolivia would take 150
days to reach the same mark. These compare to some 21 days in the
United States, 30 days in the United Kingdom and 89 days in India,
which is itself now battling a huge wave of cases.
In Brazil, the region's largest country and a global epicenter of
the virus, the government has been left scrambling to find enough
doses and is inoculating at half the speed it had initially
predicted.
Argentina has a deal for Russia's Sputnik V, though has faced delays
receiving doses, while its plan to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine
with Mexico has been held up by plant issues.
Not all Latin American countries have struggled. Chile and Uruguay,
two of the region's most developed, are outliers. Chile has given at
least one shot to over 40% of its population after leveraging its
strong trade ties to seal vaccine supplies.
In Peru, President Francisco Sagasti apologized to people having
difficulty getting vaccines.
"Peru is at the back of the line in South America," said Juan
Carvajal, a volunteer with Peru's OpenCovid group of scientists and
researchers, lamenting that only one in 50 Peruvians had been
vaccinated.
Neighboring Bolivia, meanwhile, tied up a deal for 5.2 million doses
of Sputnik V but has so far received only 245,000 doses, leaving it
well short of its initial plan to cover everyone over 60 by the end
of April.
"I signed up a fortnight ago. Now they tell me that I have to wait
all week because the vaccines are finished," Marisol Valdez, 82,
told Reuters in La Paz.
(Reporting by Adam Jourdan in Buenos Aires, Monica Machicao and
Sergio Limachi in La Paz, Herbert Villarraga in Bogota, Carlos
Valdez in Lima, Stephen Eisenhammer in Sao Paulo, Aislinn Laing in
Santiago, and Daniela Desantis in Asuncion; Writing by Adam Jourdan;
Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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