• Airfinity reports that high-income countries will have a surplus of 1.2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2021. The global vaccine need is estimated at 11 billion doses. To date, less than 15 percent of the two billion doses pledged by the G7 countries and the EU have been delivered, although Airfinity forcasts that production could reach 12 billion doses by the end of the year. The former co-chairs of an independent panel the reviewed of the international Covid response earlier this year have written that “Now is the time to show solidarity with those who have not yet been able to vaccinate their frontline health workers and most vulnerable populations.”Fatima Hassan, founder and director of Cape Town’s Health Justice Initiative called for “an urgent global reckoning,” saying that “We need to divert doses to those in need and open all the contracts.” Source
• In French Polynesia, home to 2,8000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, only 38 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated and there are shortages in oxygen, ICU beds and morgue space. Although it has autonomy from France, it is reliant upon it for health care. Hospital workers have appealed directly to President Macron in a Facebook post, and Tony Tekuataoa, who heads emergency services at the French Polynesia Hospital Centre in Tahiti said “We need help. We have said it before: we cannot get by without it,” Source