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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Sarah Johnson

Covid vaccine inequity due to ‘racism rooted in slavery and colonialism’

People walk past a Covid mural in South Africa of a woman wearing a face mask
A Covid mural in South Africa, which, with India, first proposed a temporary waiver on WTO rules for intellectual property in October 2020. Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA

Racism rooted in slavery, colonialism and apartheid is responsible for higher Covid death rates among people of African and Asian descent, as well as Roma and Indigenous peoples, a UN body has said.

That the vast majority of Covid-19 vaccines were administered in high and upper-middle-income countries replicated “slavery and colonial-era racial hierarchies”, according to the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (Cerd).

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