Vaccine inequity may widen as Omicron swells demand for jabs

Global demand for Covid-19 vaccination surged over the weekend as a rapidly growing number of people worldwide were reported to have been infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

- Magdalene Fung

As governments rush to boost vaccine supplies for their populations, experts have raised concern that the new, heavily mutated variant – already widely seen as a consequence of vaccine inequity – now also threatens to contribute to increasing that disparity.

In the United States, where Omicron cases have been recorded in at least 15 states, officials have reported long lines at vaccination clinics and delays in booking new appointments.

Britain, which has confirmed at least 160 cases of the variant, saw an uptick in vaccination turnout after halving last week the waiting time for adults getting booster shots to just three months and offering second doses to more children.

“Omicron will essentially make rich nations hoard vaccines even more, be even less generous about donations, give boosters to entire populations (and) close borders,” said Dr Madhukar Pai, an epidemiologist at McGill University’s School of Population and Global Health in Canada.

As Covid-19 vaccines started being rolled out at the end of last year, public health experts said at the time that to end the pandemic, 11 billion shots on a two-dose regimen would be needed to inoculate 70 per cent of the global population.