Covid Vaccine Body ‘Set Up With Colonial Mindset’

The organisation set up to distribute coronavirus vaccines to poorer nations was established with a “very colonial mindset”, a top African Union (AU) official has told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

Dr Ayoade Alakija, who is the co-chair of the AU’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance (Auvda), was speaking on the eve of the G7 summit where world leaders are expected to announce vaccine donations to countries that are struggling to cover their populations.

“The initial problem with [Covax] is that it was not inclusive, it was a very colonial mindset as it was set up,” she said.

“They did not come and ask us Africans, they did not come and ask our leadership, they didn't come and ask our people, 'What would you like?'”

Had that been done, Auvda would have said it wanted to vaccinate between 60% and 80% of Africa's population, Dr Alakija said.

But Covax seemed to think that covering 20% of the population was enough, she said. The global vaccine sharing scheme was “not the sole solution”.

“I think that has been the root cause of our inability so far to purchase our own vaccines, to source our own vaccines, is the fact that we were being told that Covax is enough. 'You stay there and let Covax deal with your needs.