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In poorest countries, surges worsen shortages of vaccines

A woman receives a coronavirus vaccination at the Kololo airstrip in Kampala, Uganda, Monday, May 31, 2021. Africa is especially vulnerable. As virus cases surge in the world's poorest countries, a sense of dread is growing among millions of the unvaccinated, especially those who toil in the informal, off-the-books economy, live hand-to-mouth and pay cash in health emergencies. (AP Photo/Nicholas Bamulanzeki)
A woman receives a coronavirus vaccination at the Kololo airstrip in Kampala, Uganda, Monday, May 31, 2021. Africa is especially vulnerable. As virus cases surge in the world's poorest countries, a sense of dread is growing among millions of the unvaccinated, especially those who toil in the informal, off-the-books economy, live hand-to-mouth and pay cash in health emergencies. (AP Photo/Nicholas Bamulanzeki) A woman receives a coronavirus vaccination at the Kololo airstrip in Kampala, Uganda, Monday, May 31, 2021. Africa is especially vulnerable. As virus cases surge in the world's poorest countries, a sense of dread is growing among millions of the unvaccinated, especially those who toil in the informal, off-the-books economy, live hand-to-mouth and pay cash in health emergencies. (AP Photo/Nicholas Bamulanzeki)

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA and FARAI MUTSAKA / Associated Press 7 min read

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Hati Maronjei once swore he would never get a COVID-19 shot, after a pastor warned that vaccines aren’t safe.

Now, four months after the first batch of vaccines arrived in Zimbabwe, the 44-year-old street hawker of electronic items is desperate for the shot he can’t get. Whenever he visits a clinic in the capital, Harare, he is told to try again the next day.

“I am getting frustrated and afraid,” he said. “I am always in crowded places, talking, selling to different people. I can’t lock myself in the house.”

A sense of dread is growing in some of the very poorest countries in the world as virus cases surge and more contagious variants take hold amid a crippling shortage of vaccine.

The crisis has alarmed public health officials along with the millions of unvaccinated, especially those who toil in the informal, off-the-books economy, live hand-to-mouth and pay cash in health emergencies. With intensive care units filling up in cities overwhelmed by the pandemic, severe disease can be a death sentence.