Although its government is nearly insolvent and half of its citizens live in poverty, South Africa is considered too rich to qualify for cut-rate vaccines from international aid organisations. They waited outside for hours, under the shade of a gum tree, for a chance to enrol in a clinical trial of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Johnson & Johnson has promised to sell its vaccines at break-even prices and provide half a billion doses to Covax to help poor countries. South Africa, which is now past 1 million COVID-19 cases, is facing its second wave. A few days later, though, Gill got word that Johnson & Johnson did not need any new test subjects at her location.

Source: bd News24 December 29, 2020 06:00 UTC