Is the emergence of ‘Omicron’ due to vaccine inequality?

Reuters and The New York Times reported that the emergence of ‘Omicron’, a new strain of Corona 19, is the result of the problem of vaccine inequality between countries and regions.

The birth of the Omicron strain sheds light on how the world is in a vaccine imbalance, Reuters reports.

Many developed countries are receiving a booster shot after completing vaccination, but many in Africa did not even receive the first vaccine.

According to ‘Our World in Data’, an international statistical site built by researchers at Oxford University in the UK, the vaccination completion rate in Africa, where there are many poor countries, is only 7.15%.

South Africa, which first reported the omicron mutation to the World Health Organization (WHO), had a vaccination completion rate of 23.76%, which is half of the global vaccination completion rate of 42.62%.

In Europe and the United States, these rates are about 66% and 58%, respectively, and the vaccination completion rate in Korea is close to 80%.

World Vaccine and Immunology Coalition chief executive Seth Berkeley said in a statement to Reuters that the entire world must be vaccinated to avoid the emergence of more coronavirus mutations.

“If there are many unvaccinated people around the world, the mutations will continue to appear and the pandemic will last,” he said.

In areas where vaccination rates are low, various mutations can occur constantly as the COVID-19 spreads.

The New York Times, citing South African officials, pointed out that it should be noted that the Western vaccine stockpile caused the outbreak.

He stressed that it is just as important to provide systems that can quickly vaccinate vaccines or refrigeration facilities to store vaccines as much as supplying sufficient vaccines to low-income countries.

South Africa already has many vaccines, but the vaccine is not being vaccinated on time due to a lack of vaccination system, and two-thirds of the 9 million vaccines in Uganda are at risk of being destroyed by the end of this year.