Even before the official approval was given, the United States and European countries had signed agreements and had availed the privileges to billions of doses of vaccines from several companies, including Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, CureVac, Sanofi and GSK. The European Union has secured more than enough vaccines for its population, despite the fact that two doses have to be administered to induce immunity. They have not even waited for the approval so that they have at least one efficacious vaccine as early as possible.
What about low- and middle-income countries?
With nearly 1.5 million deaths reported worldwide from COVID-19, and the Northern Hemisphere heading into its first winter in the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19) still has the world in its grip. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked countries to sign up for a strategy that will buy a vaccine in huge quantities and dispense it in an unbiased way. But it has also been dealing with two big issues:
- How to persuade high-income countries to join in its efforts, rather than hoarding early vaccine supplies for their own populations?
- How to share the vaccine in an impartial way once it becomes accessible?
The poorer nations cannot afford to make swift contracts with pharma companies. They will be dependent on COVAX, a program led by the WHO, Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness.
This program was established in order to accelerate the development and equal distribution of vaccines around the world. COVAX pools funds from states and non-profit organisations to buy and distribute vaccines. So far, some 186 economies are involved. Although the US and Russia do not contribute to COVAX, the organisation claims to have already raised $2 billion, with around $500 million coming from the European Union. However, what comes next is the equitable vaccine distribution under this program.
Vaccine distribution under the COVAX program
COVAX strategy is to offer a billion doses of coronavirus vaccines to low (e.g. Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic etc) and middle-income (e.g. India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan etc.) countries by the end of 2021, covering about 20% of their population. WHO has said it is going to prioritise countries according to their “fair allocation program.” This means that countries, where there is a bigger risk from COVID-19 to the health system, will be first in line.
COVAX lets self-financing countries request adequate doses to immunise between 10-50% of their populations; it has measures built in to ensure that high-risk groups get priority. All countries would initially get the doses they need to vaccinate at least up to 20% (if they choose to do so) of their population before other countries can increase their coverage beyond this.
Thus, under the COVAX program the poor countries can get rapid, fair and equitable access to the safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines. COVAX is trying to maximise the probability of success by having the largest and most diverse portfolio of vaccine candidates. Initially 2 billion doses are likely to be available by the end of 2021, half of which will go to lower-income countries which should be sufficient to protect high-risk and vulnerable people, including frontline health and social care workers, worldwide.
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Sources
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-vaccine-how-to-distribute-it-around-the-world/a-55746075
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/how-can-we-make-fair-and-equitable-access-reality