In Latin America, a Covid Vaccine Is No Panacea
Beleaguered health systems in the world’s hardest-hit region will struggle to inoculate their publics.
It’s a long way from the lab to the Amazon.
Photographer: Nelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Images
Populous, pharmaceutically challenged and disproportionately stricken by the novel coronavirus, Latin America has become an ideal proving ground for testing Covid-19 vaccines.
The stakes couldn’t be higher in a region with one-12th of the global population but one-third of worldwide cases and deaths from Covid-19. The 35 nations of South and Central America and the Caribbean, whose economies are set to shrink by up to 9.1% this year, are at the mercy of a contagion that has overwhelmed public health systems and for which there is no widely available effective treatment.