The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published on 10 December 2021 an analysis titled "Russian COVID-19 Diplomacy in Africa: A Mixed Bag" by Paul Stronski.
Russia set high COVID-19 expectations in Africa but has experienced delays in delivering the vaccines or reasonable financing terms to purchase them. The program has mostly been a year of misfires.
Bridge Consulting recently updated its "China COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker." Less than 13 percent of China's global vaccine distribution has gone to Africa and most of that has been in the form of sales.
The White House published on 3 June 2021 a "Statement by President Joe Biden on Global Vaccine Distribution."
The United States earlier committed $4 billion to support the WHO's global COVAX program. Although COVAX was well funded, it did not have adequate quantities of vaccine to distribute. Its distribution to Africa so far has been modest.
The Biden administration announced that by the end of June it will share 80 million doses of the U.S. vaccine supply with the world. At least 75 percent of the first 25 million doses--nearly 19 million doses--will be shared through COVAX. Approximately 5 million doses of the first 25 million are designated for Africa. This is the beginning of a major US vaccine contribution to Africa.
The Diplomat published on 24 March 2021 an analysis titled "The Logic of China's Vaccine Diplomacy" by Ivana Karaskova and Veronika Blablova, both at the Association for International Affairs in Prague.
The article underscores the exceedingly modest vaccine contributions that China has made to Africa. Except for large purchases of Chinese vaccine by Egypt and Morocco and a smaller one by Zimbabwe, China has made small donations to a number of African countries, predominantly distributed through the COVAX initiative, an international effort led by the World Health Organization. China has engaged in a major publicity campaign whenever it makes a small contribution in Africa.
By contrast, the United States has not delivered any vaccine to Africa but is by far the largest financial backer of COVAX. It has delivered about $2.5 billion to COVAX and pledged a total of $4 billion so far. Organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have provided many millions more. COVAX has the funding, but is woefully short of vaccine to deliver around the world. This situation should change in the coming months as global supply improves.
The Diplomat published on 11 March 2021 a commentary titled "5 Reasons to Worry about the 'Chinese Vaccine Diplomacy' Narrative" by Rosie Wigmore, Development Reimagined.
China's vaccine diplomacy raises questions about the efficacy of the vaccine by encouraging the idea that its rollout is a strategy to boost China's global influence. The diplomacy campaign appears opportunistic. The term "vaccine diplomacy" shifts the focus away from global cooperation.
Verisk Maplecroft posted on 9 March 2021 a commentary titled "China's Vaccine Diplomacy in Africa Unlikely to Be a Geopolitical Game Changer" by Alexandre Raymakers, Eric Humphrey-Smith, and Aleix Montana.
China is seeking to present itself in Africa as the solution rather than the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to obtain maximum publicity, most of China's contribution is being done on a bilateral basis rather than through the WHO's COVAX program. The author's believe that due to China's domestic priorities and vaccines provided to Africa by other countries and COVAX that the impact of its diplomacy may be limited.
Foreign Affairs published on 26 February 2021 an article titled "China Must Stop Hiding Its Vaccine Data" by Eyck Freymann, author, and Justin Stebbing, Imperial College London.
The authors argue that Chinese COVID-19 vaccines make an important contribution to combatting the disease in the developing world but China does itself no favor by cherry picking and publicizing positive data about efficacy of the vaccines while withholding the full results.
