Oehler Richard L, Vega Vivian R
Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, James A Haley Veterans Hospital, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Sep 9;8(10):ofab443. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab443. eCollection 2021 Oct.
The development of effective vaccines during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has been deemed a towering achievement in modern science. Since the end of 2020, the vaccine rollout has offered the promise of vanquishing the pandemic in the United States and other developed countries. Even as the United States and other wealthier nations encounter both setbacks and successes in their coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) eradication efforts, developing countries around the world are likely to face far less fortunate fates. With much of the world's vaccine production and distribution capacity reserved by wealthier nations, impoverished countries stand to face devastating financial, social, and health-related impacts. The consequences of this disparity will resonate deeply into the collective fabric of these countries, ensuring that the economic and geopolitical imbalance between developed and developing nations will widen even more substantially. Wealthier countries must do more to eliminate the inequality that exists in widespread SARS-CoV-2 vaccine availability in less-developed nations. Like HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other global epidemics, COVID-19 cannot be forgotten just because the pandemic is eventually contained from the shores of wealthier nations. For as long as the pandemic rages in any corner of the globe, the world will never be truly rid of COVID-19. And all nations, rich or poor, will suffer the consequences.
在严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）大流行期间研发出有效的疫苗，被视为现代科学的一项卓越成就。自2020年底以来，疫苗的推广为在美国和其他发达国家战胜疫情带来了希望。即便美国和其他较富裕国家在其2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）根除努力中既有挫折也有成功，但世界各地的发展中国家可能面临远为不幸的命运。由于世界上大部分疫苗生产和分发能力被较富裕国家保留，贫困国家可能面临毁灭性的金融、社会和健康相关影响。这种差距的后果将深刻地回荡在这些国家的整体结构中，确保发达国家和发展中国家之间的经济和地缘政治不平衡进一步大幅扩大。较富裕国家必须采取更多行动，消除欠发达国家广泛存在的SARS-CoV-2疫苗可及性方面的不平等。与艾滋病毒、结核病、疟疾及其他全球流行病一样，不能仅仅因为疫情最终在较富裕国家的海岸得到控制，就忘记COVID-19。只要疫情在全球任何角落肆虐，世界就永远无法真正摆脱COVID-19。所有国家，无论贫富，都将承受后果。
