One of them was Haitian President Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated at his home in Port-au-Prince recently by a group of mercenaries.

The Caribbean country has been eligible for free vaccines through the COVAX scheme, run by the World Health Organisation as well as global vaccine charities, but Moise had notably refused the AstraZeneca shots. Only days after his murder, the US dispatched vaccines to Haiti, together with a team of FBI agents.

This means that Haiti is now no longer the only country in the Western Hemisphere not to accept the Covid injection.

Soon after President John Magufuli of Tanzania had declared the vaccines dangerous, he passed away from a “heart ailment”. In February 2021, his health minister had told the media: “We are not yet satisfied that those vaccines have been clinically proven safe.” The death of the immensely popular Magufuli resulted in thousands of mourners crowding into a stadium to view his body. However, soon after Magufuli’s death, Tanzania ordered a huge shipment of the products worth millions of dollars for its 60 million citizens.