Act on vaccine equity

For most Arkansans, receiving the covid-19 vaccination is a simple process. You walk into your local grocery store or health center and leave with your first vaccination in less than 30 minutes without ever having to worry about affordability or accessibility. This has largely contributed to our increasing vaccination rates, which are now around 45 percent.

However, as scientific experts have indicated, in the fight against covid-19, nobody is safe unless everybody is safe. Many low-income countries are imposing new lockdowns to stop the third wave of covid-19 infections because they’ve been denied access to covid-19 vaccines. And now they are dealing with the highly infectious Delta variant, one of the many variants which have risen in countries with low or virtually nonexistent vaccination rates.

Arkansas, like many U.S. states, has been hard-hit by the Delta variant as we have seen during the last few months with hospital ICU beds being completely occupied with covid-19 patients with several patients dying at my local UAMS hospital.

Global vaccine equity is not just about equity for the world’s poorest population, but it is a way for us to prevent future covid-19 variants, which may be even more deadly or, worse, resistant to our current vaccines.

To restore the safety and livelihood of our fellow Arkansans, we must advocate for President Biden and Congress to lead a global effort to bring together industry, governments, and global health institutions to urgently increase the supply and distribution of vaccines.

The cost of inaction will be the lost lives around the world, including in Arkansas. Are we willing to bear these consequences, or will we take decisive action on global vaccine equity?

CHANDRASIMHA PENTHALA

Little Rock