Poorer countries facing rougher road to vaccine
Ambitious initiative to secure shots exposes inequities with richer nations
NEW DELHI — With Americans, Britons and Canadians rolling up their sleevestoreceivecoronavirus vaccines, the route out of the pandemic now seems clear to many in the West, even if the rollout will take many months.
But for poorer countries, theroadwillbefarlongerand rougher.
The ambitious initiative knownasCOVAX,whichwas created to ensure the entire world has access to COVID- 19 vaccines, has secured only a fraction of the 2 billion dosesithopestobuyoverthe next year, has yet to confirm any actual deals to ship out vaccinesandisshortoncash.
The virus that has killed more than 1.6 million people has exposed vast inequities between countries, as fragile health systems and smaller economies were often hit harder. COVAXwassetupby the World Health Organization, vaccines alliance GAVI and CEPI, a global coalition to fight epidemics, to avoid the international stampede for vaccines that has accompanied past outbreaks and wouldreinforcethoseimbalances.
But now some experts say the chances that coronavirusshotswillbesharedfairly between rich nations and the rest are fading fast. With vaccine supplies limited, developed countries, some of which helped fund the research with taxpayer money, are under tremendous pressure to protect their own populations and are buying up shots.
Meanwhile, some poorer countries that signed up to the initiative are looking for alternatives because of fears it won’t deliver.
“It’s simple math,” said Arnaud Bernaert, head of global health at the World Economic Forum. Of the approximately 12 billion doses the pharmaceutical industry is expected to produce next year, about 9 billion shots have already been reserved by rich countries.
“COVAX has not secured enough doses, and the way the situation may unfold is they will probably only get these doses fairly late.”
To date, COVAX’s only confirmed, legally binding agreement is for up to 200 million doses, though that includes an option to order several times that number of additional doses, GAVI spokesman James Fulker said. It has agreements for another500millionvaccines, butthosearenotlegallybinding.
The 200 million doses will come from the Serum Institute of India, the company that will likely make a large portion of the coronavirus shots destined for the developing world. CEO Adar Poonawalla says it has a confirmed order for 100 million doses each of a vaccinedevelopedbyOxford University and AstraZeneca and one from Novovax.
“We don’t have anything beyond that in writing,” he said. Asked Tuesday about why the Serum Institute was only contracted to produce 200 million vaccines for COVAX, WHO’s Dr. Bruce Aylward said they would go back to the company “to make sure they have the assurances they need.”
Potentially further slowing down the process is that neither the AstraZeneca vaccine nor the Novovax one has been licensed by any regulatory agency yet — and any injection distributed by COVAX will likely need WHOapproval. COVAXdoes not have any supplies of the two vaccines that appear to A doctor in India said many developing countries will face logistical challenges that will add to delays in getting access to a COVID-19 vaccine. Above, a health worker takes a sample to test for COVID-19 last month in New Delhi. MANISH SWARUP/AP be most effective so far — the Pfizer-BioNTech shot and theModernaone.TheUnited Kingdom has already begun givingthePfizervaccine, and theUnitedStatesandCanada are rolling it out this week.
Some Gulf countries have also authorized it.
Still, GAVI said they “aim to start rolling out safe and effective vaccines to COVAX (member countries) at scale within the first and second quarters of the new year.”
Even with vaccines in hand, the rollouts will take months in rich countries, and many developing ones are facing serious logistical challenges that will add to delays, noted Dr. Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases expertattheChristianMedical College in Vellore, India.
SeniorofficialsattheWHO haveacknowledgedprivately thatattemptstofairlyallocate vaccinethroughtheinitiative are flawed, despite publicly lauding its success.
“The whole call for global solidarity has mostly been lost,” said Dr. Katherine O’Brien, WHO’s vaccines chief, during a recent internal discussion, a recording of which was obtained by the AP.
Asked to clarify her remarks, O’Brien said in an email that “every country should have access to COVID-19 vaccines, as early as feasible.”
Adding to COVAX’s difficulties, O’Brien noted at a news conference this month thatitwasstill$5billionshort to buy the doses it’s planning to obtain next year.
But for poorer countries, theroadwillbefarlongerand rougher.
The ambitious initiative knownasCOVAX,whichwas created to ensure the entire world has access to COVID- 19 vaccines, has secured only a fraction of the 2 billion dosesithopestobuyoverthe next year, has yet to confirm any actual deals to ship out vaccinesandisshortoncash.
The virus that has killed more than 1.6 million people has exposed vast inequities between countries, as fragile health systems and smaller economies were often hit harder. COVAXwassetupby the World Health Organization, vaccines alliance GAVI and CEPI, a global coalition to fight epidemics, to avoid the international stampede for vaccines that has accompanied past outbreaks and wouldreinforcethoseimbalances.
But now some experts say the chances that coronavirusshotswillbesharedfairly between rich nations and the rest are fading fast. With vaccine supplies limited, developed countries, some of which helped fund the research with taxpayer money, are under tremendous pressure to protect their own populations and are buying up shots.
Meanwhile, some poorer countries that signed up to the initiative are looking for alternatives because of fears it won’t deliver.
“It’s simple math,” said Arnaud Bernaert, head of global health at the World Economic Forum. Of the approximately 12 billion doses the pharmaceutical industry is expected to produce next year, about 9 billion shots have already been reserved by rich countries.
“COVAX has not secured enough doses, and the way the situation may unfold is they will probably only get these doses fairly late.”
To date, COVAX’s only confirmed, legally binding agreement is for up to 200 million doses, though that includes an option to order several times that number of additional doses, GAVI spokesman James Fulker said. It has agreements for another500millionvaccines, butthosearenotlegallybinding.
The 200 million doses will come from the Serum Institute of India, the company that will likely make a large portion of the coronavirus shots destined for the developing world. CEO Adar Poonawalla says it has a confirmed order for 100 million doses each of a vaccinedevelopedbyOxford University and AstraZeneca and one from Novovax.
“We don’t have anything beyond that in writing,” he said. Asked Tuesday about why the Serum Institute was only contracted to produce 200 million vaccines for COVAX, WHO’s Dr. Bruce Aylward said they would go back to the company “to make sure they have the assurances they need.”
Potentially further slowing down the process is that neither the AstraZeneca vaccine nor the Novovax one has been licensed by any regulatory agency yet — and any injection distributed by COVAX will likely need WHOapproval. COVAXdoes not have any supplies of the two vaccines that appear to A doctor in India said many developing countries will face logistical challenges that will add to delays in getting access to a COVID-19 vaccine. Above, a health worker takes a sample to test for COVID-19 last month in New Delhi. MANISH SWARUP/AP be most effective so far — the Pfizer-BioNTech shot and theModernaone.TheUnited Kingdom has already begun givingthePfizervaccine, and theUnitedStatesandCanada are rolling it out this week.
Some Gulf countries have also authorized it.
Still, GAVI said they “aim to start rolling out safe and effective vaccines to COVAX (member countries) at scale within the first and second quarters of the new year.”
Even with vaccines in hand, the rollouts will take months in rich countries, and many developing ones are facing serious logistical challenges that will add to delays, noted Dr. Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases expertattheChristianMedical College in Vellore, India.
SeniorofficialsattheWHO haveacknowledgedprivately thatattemptstofairlyallocate vaccinethroughtheinitiative are flawed, despite publicly lauding its success.
“The whole call for global solidarity has mostly been lost,” said Dr. Katherine O’Brien, WHO’s vaccines chief, during a recent internal discussion, a recording of which was obtained by the AP.
Asked to clarify her remarks, O’Brien said in an email that “every country should have access to COVID-19 vaccines, as early as feasible.”
Adding to COVAX’s difficulties, O’Brien noted at a news conference this month thatitwasstill$5billionshort to buy the doses it’s planning to obtain next year.
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