Deborah Bräutigam: China Likely To Partner With the WHO For C19 Vaccine Distribution in Africa

China is working closely with Ethiopia, Egypt, and likely other African countries to lay the groundwork to deliver millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent. With the new cold-chain air bridge that was announced last week between Shenzhen and Addis Ababa, it’s becoming more evident as to how the vaccines will make it from China to Africa.

However, it’s still not clear what will happen once the vaccines arrive on the continent and how’ll they’ll be distributed evenly to each country. Professor Deborah Bräutigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, told the German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Monday that she thinks Beijing will turn to the World Health Organization for assistance:

“At this point, we have more than 40 countries in Africa who’ve signed on to the Belt and Road Initiative and I think it would be problematic for Beijing to select out of those 43 some to be first and some to follow. So, what I expect they’ll do is operate through the WHO.

The WHO’s already gotten a plan that it’s heading the COVAX which China’s already signed on in October and I think by following in the WHO’s footsteps they’ll be best placed to get the best soft power results because picking and choosing is really going to be lose-lose for China.”

Watch the full interview with Deborah Bräutigam on the DW website.

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The post Deborah Bräutigam: China Likely To Partner With the WHO For C19 Vaccine Distribution in Africa appeared first on The China Africa Project.

source https://chinaafricaproject.com/2020/12/15/deborah-brautigam-china-likely-to-partner-with-the-who-for-c19-vaccine-distribution-in-africa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=deborah-brautigam-china-likely-to-partner-with-the-who-for-c19-vaccine-distribution-in-africa