A/76/302 how the “concept of subalternity” left people of African descent infantilized by authorities, particularly in colonialesque contexts. In this regard, they were denied public resources and services, and concerns and enquiries were construed as punishable non-compliance. 32. People of African descent also reported the blurring of boundaries between work and home and the expectation that they were always available for work. For students who returned home, maintaining a reliable Internet connection for remote study in university or secondary school and the lack of in-person support led to increased dropout rates. For many, the need for working Internet at home created significant expenses as insecurity escalated. Increased food insecurity was also commonly reported, as was the invisibility of need. In Colombia, over 80 per cent of Afro-Colombians rely on the informal economy, which was devastated by the lack of travel and tourism. Nearly 40 per cent of people reduced their daily food intake, to two meals per day or less. Elsewhere, communities also reported lesser solidarity, as well as heightened distrust, as concerns at avoiding infection limited or stopped existing community-based intervention, created concerns at sharing health and other resources, and complicated mutual aid efforts. Described as cultural theft, this arose as core aspects of solidarity culture became potential threats. The impact of fear, indifference and egocentrism in the pandemic paralysed communities. This included a fear of the police, as well as a fear of long-held cultural bereavement practices that could occasion risk, such as rubbing shoulders on the threshold of a departed loved one’s home, a custom of people of African descent in the Indian Ocean territories. 33. Familiar inequities continue to drive the global COVID -19 response: access to vaccines prioritizes wealth and geopolitical power above need, risk and international comity. Vaccine producers have sought to assert intellectual property claims that may limit the replication and roll-out of vaccines globally. In addition, even in wealthy nations, a bidding war for vaccines has dramatically affected supply, leading to the spoliation and expiration of vaccines in some States and little or no access to vaccines in others. In the European Union, some States allow universal access to vaccines, but migrants of African descent in other States, such as Greece, cannot secure vaccinations without national identification numbers. 13 34. A racialized, wealth-based double standard has emerged, whereby citizens of wealthy and developed nations have enjoyed widespread vaccine access. In other States, where vaccine access remains low or non-existent, the COVID-19 threat persists along with non-vaccine interventions, including treatments seeking to lessen the severity for those who are infected. 14 The lack of access to vaccines is not necessarily related to availability. Even at present, millions of vaccine doses produced in South Africa are shipped to Europe for distribution. 15 Reportedly, the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust negotiated vaccines for Africans by threatening to block the export of vaccine doses. Vaccine nationalism, including of the wealthiest nations, and “vaccine apartheid” suggest that the balance of power will continue to have a significant impact on COVID-19 treatment, access and outcomes. 35. The COVID-19 pandemic was exacerbated for people of African descent by historical failures of political will to redress and repair the ongo ing harms associated with colonialism and the trade and trafficking in enslaved Africans. In May 2021, researchers confirmed that financial reparations could have mitigated COVID -19 __________________ 13 14 15 21-11641 Generation 2.0, “Operation freedom or health insecurity?”, 6 July 2021. Available at https://g2red.org/operation-freedom-or-health-insecurity/. ISGlobal, “Recruitment begins in Mozambique for ANTICOV clinical trial of early treatments for COVID-19”, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, 29 July 2021. Gordon Brown, “The world is making billions of COVID vaccine doses, so why is Africa not getting them?” The Guardian, 16 August 2021. 11/22