Africa's Heath and Education | Page 98

The PANAFRICAN Review
forty thousand people . What was it ? It was a vaccine summit : vaccine manufacturing in Africa . Four heads of state were present : Ramaphosa , Tshisekedi , Kagame and Macky Salle . That was a historic moment . Since then , what has happened ? There ’ s a hub now in South Africa for manufacturing ; Rwanda has a strong will , political capital , and a strong determination to start manufacturing vaccines , and we are very supportive . The same can be said for , Senegal . Egypt is already building a partnership with the Chinese to manufacture the Chinese vaccine . I was just told today that Morocco is in the process of manufacturing vaccines . What ’ s more , Algeria and Ghana are also eager to do that . Last week , we had a meeting of about 12 African countries that all came together , and we said , “ look , if you all want to manufacture vaccines , come together and let ’ s have a conversation .” They all came together and we had a conversation . So , we are making progress ; it is a fact that we will make this happen .
PAR : We hear that the vaccines might not get to all of us until 2025 . What reassurance can you give Africans ? Some hope about …
No , absolutely not . Africans , we are a resilient people . Count on your own ; you have counted on us , you trusted vaccines ; we ’ ve started rolling out vaccines in a very systematic way , starting from August 2021 with the AVAT mechanism . The other donations and pledges can come in to support , but the backbone of our vaccination programme will be driven by ourselves , the AU and the AVAT mechanism . And again , just next week , we will begin to see the distribution of some doses that are coming from Johnson and Johnson , which will be vaccines that have been procured and paid for by Africans for Africans . We will not wait until 2024 or 2023 ; you can be assured of that .
When the vaccines are available , please go get your vaccines . If you vaccinate yourself , you are vaccinating and protecting your loved ones . If you vaccinate yourself , it means you love your neighbour , your family , your loved ones . It is not just about protecting yourself but protecting your loved ones and your community .
❧ ❧ ❧

98