Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for being with us today and for enlightening us with their comments.
On March 21, Joshua Tabah, director general of the health and nutrition section of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, suggested that there was a supply issue with vaccines in 2021, whereas now it's more of a demand issue. That's what you're confirming or seem to be confirming today. We're having trouble getting available vaccines into arms, from what I understand.
Furthermore, Mr. Ehsassi talked about the lack of qualified personnel. We could also talk about other factors, such as the cold chain and large distances to travel to cover small isolated villages here and there, but also the vaccine hesitancy found in some countries.
The World Health Organization announced last Thursday that 1 million African children have been vaccinated against malaria. We've been told that an average of 6 million people are currently being vaccinated in Africa each week against COVID‑19 and that this number would need to increase to 36 million to reach the target of 70% vaccination coverage.
My question to both witnesses is this: In Africa, is there the same kind of hesitancy toward the malaria vaccine as there is toward COVID‑19 vaccines?