The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to evolve and mutate along with its underlying virus, frustrating efforts to project its course. Yet one early prediction has come true. Even as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics have come to market in record time, they have been extremely slow to reach the world’s poorest countries and people. While wealthy countries have enjoyed almost universal access to vaccines since late spring or early summer of last year—and are now rolling out third- and fourth-round booster shots across their populations—less than 10% of people in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mali have received their first shot.
