It was heartwarming to see 90-year-old Briton Margaret Keenan becoming the first patient in the world to get the SARS-CoV2 vaccine in early December.
But there was a bitter sense of deja vu for many watching on television from Africa. Those of us who lived through the HIV pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s recalled the time when life-saving antiretroviral medicine was available in Western countries yet unaffordable for us. We knew that people we loved would die as a result.
Last week, a UK initiative called Arm-in-Arm was launched to encourage people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to donate to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Fund to help pay for vaccines for people in poorer countries. It is supported by the universities of East Anglia and Essex, as well as Sarah Gilbert, the co-creator of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
