The WHO affirms that Latin America already has its vaccines against …

Although a vaccine has not yet been approved, nearly 40 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean have already obtained the necessary doses for a first phase of immunization in the face of COVID-19, which until this Saturday has caused some 400,000 deaths in the region.

“We are supporting the region to participate in the COVAX mechanism, whose main objective is that all countries receive vaccines at the same time when they are ready ”, says Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO-WHO), highlighting the history of inequality in access.

In the virtual forum “Covering stories about COVID-19 vaccines in a responsible and evidence-based way”, Barbosa mentioned as an example that “during the H1N1 influenza pandemic (2009-2010), in Latin America the poorest countries only had access to vaccines 6 to 8 months after rich countries ”, an inequality that the COVAX Mechanism wants to combat.

This access is a growing concern for Latin America and the Caribbean, which As of this Saturday, it registers 11.1 million infections (25% of the world total) and borders 400,000 deaths (almost 30%) from coronavirus.

2,714 MILLION DOLLARS TO VACCINATE 20% OF THE POPULATION

According to data from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), so far, 13% of the world has purchased more than 50% by volume of the most promising vaccine candidates.

The United States has obtained 600 million doses; UK, 60 million; the European Union, 30 million, and Canada, 72 million, which for MSF collects concern for solidarity in the allocation of vaccines.

With this fear and fewer resources, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have been linked to the process, participating in clinical studies and managing their adherence to COVAX, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and which seeks access with equity to an eventual vaccine.

Through COVAX, some 180 countries that have joined the mechanism are guaranteed initial doses to cover at least 3% of the population in the early stages of vaccine deployment, eventually reaching 20% ​​of its inhabitants, enough to protect the most exposed.

According to the WHO, at this moment there are three ways to obtain the vaccine: national access, with direct agreements with manufacturing laboratories (Argentina, Mexico and Brazil have taken this option), group-regional supply agreements- and global, which is what COVAX represents.

Within COVAX, which has also been joined by Mexico and Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean, it currently registers about 30 self-financed countries or territories (that is, with the capacity to buy vaccines) and 10 eligible for support: Bolivia, Dominica . , El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

John Fitzsimmons, chief of the PAHO / WHO Revolving Fund Program, detailed in the forum that to vaccinate 20% of the region’s population, it is estimated that 273 million doses will be needed (with a two-dose schedule at $ 10.55 / dose), which will imply a projected cost of $ 2,714,200,000.

201 REGISTERED CANDIDATES, WITH 10 MORE ADVANCED

WHO currently registers 201 candidate vaccines: 156 in the preclinical stage, including two from Brazil, one from Argentina and one from Cuba, and 45 in human trials.

Of the last, 10 are already in the final stretch (phase III), in which safety and efficacy are evaluated with tens of thousands of volunteers.

Four of the 10 most advanced vaccines are developed in China, while the others are from American pharmaceutical companies Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Novavax, Pfizer (in collaboration with Germany’s BioNTech) and Moderna; to which the British AstraZeneca joins in collaboration with the University of Oxford.

Also on the list is one from Russia, which this week sent the WHO a request for expedited registration and prequalification of its Sputnik V vaccine.

The trials have not been without difficulties. AstraZeneca and Janssen have already resumed testing after being briefly interrupted to investigate cases of volunteers who fell ill.

With information from EFE

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