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JOHANNESBURG — Detection of the Omicron variant in Africa marks the next phase of the battle against Covid-19: vaccinating many more people in poorer countries where vaccines are scarce to prevent the development of new mutations.

But while world leaders sometimes talk about it as if it’s largely a matter of delivering doses overseas, the South African experience at least hints at a much more complex set of challenges.

Like many poorer countries, South Africa had to wait months for vaccines as wealthier countries monopolized it. Many countries still do not have anywhere near enough doses to vaccinate their populations.

The problems did not end when the shootings started to come in more numbers.

Neglected and underfunded public health infrastructure has slowed their deployment, particularly to rural areas where storage and staffing problems are common.

And now there are growing signs that skepticism or outright hostility towards Covid vaccines may run deeper than anticipated, even as a new and possibly more dangerous variant of Omicron is spreading in parts of South Asia as well as Africa. At least three countries in Africa have now reported Omicron cases: South Africa, Botswana, and Nigeria on Wednesday.

Deep mistrust of governments and medical authorities, particularly among rural and marginalized communities, may already be delaying vaccination campaigns. The legacy of Western exploitation and medical abuses during and after colonialism also outweighs.

The misinformation circulating on social media often fills the gap, some coming from the United States and Europe, where vaccine rejection is also a problem.

World Health Organization Africa Director Dr. “There is no doubt that vaccine hesitancy is a factor in the introduction of vaccines,” said Matshidiso Moeti. News or rumors of possible side effects are “chosen and talked about, and some people get scared,” he said.

Just days before the Omicron variant was first detected, health officials in South Africa turned his back Dose shipments from Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson worried that their stock of 16 million needles could deteriorate due to insufficient demand.

Although only 36 percent of South African adults are fully vaccinated, daily vaccinations are already flattening, according to government statistics.

It’s not just South Africa.

Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi have asked vaccine manufacturers and donors to delay sending more vaccines because they cannot use the supplies they have, according to several health officials involved in the effort to distribute the vaccines to developing countries.

Research has consistently found that factors such as public distrust and unequal distribution of vaccines can increase vaccine hesitancy in any country. But he said these problems are often more common in poorer countries during the pandemic. Dr. Saad Omar, a Yale University epidemiologist, and they have had a deeper impact.

Public messaging campaigns and carefully orchestrated deliveries of vaccines can dispel distrust – but they are insufficient.

Dr. “There has been virtually no investment in vaccine education or promotion to low-income countries,” Omar said. “Why is it that all we have to do is drop off the vaccines at an airport and have a photo taken and we wait for people to come running to the airport to get the vaccine?”

World Health Organization officials reported that only one in four healthcare workers in Africa is vaccinated. said. In some countries, less than half say they are considering getting vaccinated.

This is not just a problem for Africa.

Health workers gathered in India sometimes fierce resistance in rural communities. Vaccine hesitation rates there approaching 50 percent among those who have not completed high school. In some parts of the country, more than a third Doses are disrupted due to low demand.

Still, many are dying to get vaccinated. When doses first became widely available in South Africa earlier this year, a third of adults in the country were quickly vaccinated; this is a pattern repeated elsewhere.

Experts emphasize that even partial uptake will slow the spread of new or existing variants. But if the world is to get past the pandemic, this may not be enough to achieve the high vaccination rates needed.

Distrust of government and medical authorities goes back much further than Covid in South Africa. However, with the introduction of the vaccine, a series of mishaps and widespread corruption allegations In the midst of last year’s quarantine, public unrest has grown.

“There is a lack of confidence in the public health system’s ability to deliver vaccines,” said Chris Vick, founder of Covid Comms, a South African nonprofit group.

The group holds vaccination briefings, but skepticism is not easy to overcome. After a session in Atteridgeville’s Pretoria borough, a 20-year-old who attended said he wasn’t convinced.

“I don’t think Covid is real,” said the young woman, Tidibatso Rakabe. “They’re playing with us, with politicians, with everybody.”

Many say they are afraid of side effects.

Earlier this year, reports of extremely rare blood clots swept the United States. to pause briefly Delivery of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has caused South Africa to delay its rollout to healthcare workers. After both countries decided that they were safe, they decided to continue filming.

The South African government held regular briefings, but these were televised and in English at a time when radio remained the most powerful tool and most South Africans did not speak English as their first language.

Online registration systems also left out the millions who did not have regular access to the Internet.

Lockdown relief efforts were tainted by corruption scandals that forced the president’s spokesman to resign. The health minister later resigned after his office was found to have fraudulently signed a communications contract worth $9 million.

Racial discrimination is another important factor.

White South Africans are much more likely than others to voice their skepticism about vaccines. new study found. According to Mr Vick of Covid Comms, this is partly due to distrust of the Black-led government, but also due to the wide reach of American Covid conspirators on social media among white South Africans.

Although black South Africans express more openness to vaccination, they are often vaccinated at lower rates because they have difficulty reaching vaccination sites. Others also express their hesitation about firing a second shot.

Vaccine hesitancy has long hampered global vaccine drives, health experts say, with some drivers predating the pandemic.

In poor, rural areas, health resources are often scarce. Doctors from the capital or abroad often oversee vaccinations. But histories of neglect and exploitation leave communities distrustful of strangers making mysterious shots.

The first modern, worldwide campaign against smallpox, launched in 1959, aroused deep suspicion in parts of Africa and Asia, where it was seen as a continuation of colonial-era medical abuses. Some WHO officials physical force used inoculating people, deepening distrust. The campaign lasted 28 years.

Efforts to eradicate polio, which increased rapidly in the 1980s and still continue in poor countries, met with similar resistance. A study in the scientific journal Nature found that: vaccine avoidance highest among poor or marginalized groups who believe that health authorities, and especially Western governments, will never voluntarily help them.

In the early 2000s, false rumors circulated in Nigeria that, at a time of heightened religious tensions, foreign health workers were using polio vaccines to sterilize the country’s Muslim population. Boycotts and local bans have led to a resurgence of polio, with cases spreading to 15 countries as far as Southeast Asia.

Similar rumors surfaced among India’s Muslim minority, after which polio cases increased sixfold in one year.

Health authorities may now be paying the price of many years of exploitation before and after colonialism that instilled deep distrust of Western medical authorities. 15 countries questionnaire The African Center for Disease Control found that 43 percent of respondents believe Africans are being used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials – a legacy of Western pharmaceutical companies does exactly that in the 1990s.

Western governments are struggling to defeat vaccine resistance, even within their own borders. Therefore, it is hard to imagine that they do better in remote societies where they lack local understanding.

Any image of Western powers forcing unwanted vaccines on African or Asian weapons risks deepening the backlash.

Dr. “If the goal is to keep the United States and the rest of the world safe, it should be pretty clear that the success of the domestic program depends on what happens internationally,” Omer said. said.

Declan Walsh Contributed to reporting from Nairobi.