Greta Thunberg Got Her First COVID-19 Vax Dose and Called Out Global Vaccine Inequality
Greta Thunberg got her first dose of the vaccine and took the opportunity to call out vaccine inequality. The teen climate striker took to social media to do what she does best: highlight lackluster leadership in the face of a global crisis.
“Today, I got my first COVID-19 vaccination dose,” Greta wrote, sharing a photo of herself masked up with a Band-Aid on her arm. “I am extremely grateful and privileged to be able to live in a part of the world where I can already get vaccinated. The vaccine distribution around the world is extremely unequal.”
She then cited a statement from the New York Times, which reports that, globally, “84% of shots that have gone into arms worldwide have been administered in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Only 0.3% of doses have been administered in low-income countries.” According to the Times, by continent, Europe and North America are leading the world in vaccines doses administered per capita, with 84 and 82 doses administered per 100 people, respectively. No other continent is over 60 on that front, and Africa has administered only 4.5 doses per 100 people.
“No one is safe until everyone is safe,” Greta wrote. “But when you get offered a vaccine, don’t hesitate. It saves lives.”
Vaccine hesitancy and access have been the biggest stories as COVID-19 vaccines roll out. With the Delta variant sparking concerns of a fourth wave of the pandemic, vaccines are a key part of the fight to help people survive as, according to Yale Medicine, studies indicate that mRNA vaccines can be very effective in reducing the severity of the disease.
Yet access to vaccines has remained a top concern for global health experts. “It’s becoming so dangerous, and the difference now is between having a vaccine and not having a vaccine; the differences between the have and have-nots, which is now completely exposing the unfairness of our world, the injustice, the inequality,” World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in June.
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
