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Almost 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in ten people against COVID-19 next year unless governments and the pharmaceutical industry take urgent action to ensure that sufficient doses are produced, a group of campaigning organizations warned today. .
By contrast, wealthier nations have purchased enough doses to vaccinate their entire population nearly three times before the end of 2021 if all those currently in clinical trials are approved for use. Canada tops the list with enough vaccines to vaccinate every Canadian five times. Updated data shows that wealthy nations that make up just 14 percent of the world’s population have purchased 53 percent of all the most promising vaccines so far.
Organizations, including Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now and Oxfam, which are part of an alliance calling for a popular vaccine, used data collected by scientific information and analysis company Airfinity to analyze agreements made between countries and the eight leading vaccines. candidates. They found that 67 low- and lower-middle-income countries are at risk of being left behind as rich countries move towards their escape route from this pandemic. Five of the 67 (Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Ukraine) have reported nearly 1.5 million cases between them.
Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s director of health policy, said: “No one should be prevented from receiving a life-saving vaccine because of the country they live in or the amount of money in their pocket. But unless something dramatically changes, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 in the next few years. “
Heidi Chow of Global Justice Now said: “All pharmaceutical corporations and research institutions working on a vaccine must share the science, technological knowledge and intellectual property behind their vaccine so that sufficient safe and effective doses can be produced. . Governments must also ensure that the pharmaceutical industry puts people’s lives before profit. “
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has already received UK approval and vaccinations start this week. You will likely receive approval from other countries, including the US, in a few days. Two other potential vaccines, from Moderna and Oxford in association with AstraZeneca, are expected to be submitted or await regulatory approval. The Russian vaccine, Sputnik, has announced positive trial results and four other candidates are in phase 3 clinical trials.
So far, all doses of Moderna and 96 percent of Pfizer / BioNTech have been purchased by rich countries. In contrast, Oxford / AstraZeneca has committed to providing 64 percent of its doses to people in developing countries. However, despite their actions to increase supply, they will only be able to reach 18% of the world’s population next year at the most. The Oxford / AstraZeneca agreements have also mostly been made with some of the large developing countries such as China and India, while most developing countries have not made agreements and have to share the COVAX vaccine pool among themselves. .
This shows that a single company cannot aspire to supply the whole world, and that only the open exchange of technology between vaccine producers can make it possible.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance calls on all pharmaceutical corporations working on COVID-19 vaccines to openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Group, so that billions of more doses can be manufactured and safe and effective vaccines can be produced. be available to all who need them.
The Alliance also calls on governments to do everything in their power to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines become a global public good, free of charge to the public, distributed fairly and based on needs. A first step would be to support South Africa and India’s proposal to the Council of the World Trade Organization this week to give up intellectual property rights to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments until all are protected.
Steve Cockburn, Director of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International, said: “Vaccine hoarding actively undermines global efforts to ensure that everyone, everywhere, can be protected against COVID-19. Rich countries have clear human rights obligations not only to refrain from actions that may harm access to vaccines elsewhere, but also to cooperate and provide assistance to countries in need.
“By buying the vast majority of the world’s vaccine supply, rich countries are failing to meet their human rights obligations. Instead, by working with others to share knowledge and expand offerings, they could help end the global COVID-19 crisis. “
Vaccines developed by AstraZeneca / Oxford, Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech have received more than $ 5 billion in public funds, which the alliance said assigned them the responsibility of acting in the global public interest.
Dr Mohga Kamal Yanni from the People’s Vaccine Alliance said: “Rich countries have enough doses to vaccinate everyone almost three times, while poor countries don’t even have enough to reach health workers and people at risk.
“The current system, in which pharmaceutical companies use government funds for research, retain exclusive rights and keep their technology secret to increase profits, could cost many lives.”
Lois Chingandu, Director of Frontline AIDS, said: “This pandemic is a global problem that requires a global solution. The world economy will continue to suffer as long as much of the world does not have access to a vaccine.
“We need to put aside the profits of the pharmaceutical industry during this unprecedented pandemic, both to save humanity and the economy.”
Momentum is building for a popular vaccine, which has already been endorsed by COVID survivors, health experts, activists, past and present world leaders, religious leaders, and economists, including: Cyril Ramaphosa, Imran Khan, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Gordon Brown, Helen Clark, Mary Robinson, Joseph Stiglitz, John Nkengasong, and Thomas Piketty.
