AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), has joined forces with Africa’s fastest sprinter – Ferdinand Omanyala – who will help lead AHF’s Vaccinate Our World (VOW) campaign on the continent. Omanyala, an African record holder and the eighth fastest man of all time in the 100-metre race, will encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Vaccination rates in Africa are much lower compared to other parts of the world, due to the initial lack of vaccine supply as a result of hoarding by wealthy countries, and hesitancy by a significant number of people to get vaccinated. A 2020 Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) survey in 15 countries found vaccine hesitancy ranging from 4% to 38% despite 79% of respondents willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
With nearly 4 billion people already fully vaccinated around the world, COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective at preventing severe illness and death from coronavirus. Despite this safety assurance, in Kenya, for instance, only 4.8% of the population is fully inoculated compared to Africa’s average of 8.8%, which is largely attributed to vaccine hesitancy, the limited number of doses and the sporadic nature of the distribution channels.