Low rate of COVID-19 vaccination in Africa: a cause for concern

Abstract

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). The development of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in an unprecedented timeline was a major breakthrough and provided a significant lifeline to bring the global pandemic caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) under control. To date, these vaccines remain the safest and most effective tool available to combat the pandemic that has caused significant morbidities, mortalities, and economic downturns.1,2 Undoubtedly, the vaccine rollout has been marred by controversial issues such as vaccine inequity, vaccine nationalism, and vaccine hesitancy3 despite published scientific data from clinical trials.