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China has now signed a massive global alliance to develop and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, putting America’s absence from the pact in even sharper relief.
With its late entry announced on Friday, China joins 170 other countries in the pact, called the COVAX Facility. The effort is spearheaded by the World Health Organization and co-led together with the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
COVAX is designed to pool resources to help develop a vaccine and bring it to market globally. Once at that point, the alliance will help ensure that all participating countries have access to any successful vaccine candidate, regardless of where it was developed. It will also provide financial assistance to low-income countries to access the vaccine. So far, at least 77 high-income countries (including China) have joined, as well as 92 low- and middle-income countries.
COVAX aims to distribute two billion doses of a pandemic coronavirus vaccine, SARS-CoV-2, by the end of 2021. Although many questions remain about distribution and access, leaders have published a rough two-phase plan. for vaccine distribution, which will start based on the size of the population of each country and then, in the second phase, will strategically weigh the health needs and the spread of disease in individual countries or regions.
Intervening
Funding for the huge plan is still shaky and the terms of China’s involvement are unclear. But China’s entry may improve prospects. China has the world’s second-largest economy and is also developing four of the 10 candidate vaccines that are already in the final stages of clinical trials.
“We are taking this concrete step to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, especially to developing countries, and we hope more capable countries will also join and support COVAX,” government spokesman Hua Chunying said in a statement reported by Associated Press.
The United States is not among the high-income countries participating in COVAX. Instead, it remains in the ranks with Russia as the major uninvolved economies. In its refusal to participate, the Trump administration cited its decision to bypass the World Health Organization amid the global health crisis. Experts were quick to label the measure “myopic” and “counterproductive.”
The absence of the United States may be a blessing for China, Natasha Kassam, a researcher at the Lowy Institute in Australia, told AP. “China’s joining COVAX serves the dual purpose of filling the leadership gap left by the United States in terms of global public health and in terms of securing a future vaccine for its population,” he said.
However, GAVI CEO Seth Berkley celebrated China’s entry, writing in a tweet from friday morning: “Delighted to welcome China to the #COVAX facility! This announcement further drives our mission to ensure future # COVID19 vaccines are distributed fairly because no one is safe until everyone is safe. #OneWorldProtected “
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