One in four people are forced to wait until 2022 for the Covid vaccine because rich countries have built up stocks, study warns



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The World Health Organization’s Covax facility, a scheme created to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, could play a key role in a fairer distribution of vaccine stocks, the study says.

But efforts to coordinate global access through Covax have already lagged behind.

The United States and Russia, two key countries in the manufacture of vaccines, have not yet joined the scheme, although it is expected that when he takes office, US President-elect Joe Biden will join the scheme. And it will take an additional $ 5 billion to meet Covax’s goal of procuring at least two billion doses by 2021.

Last week, a coalition of charities, including Oxfam, warned that poor countries are at risk of being trampled in the race to get enough coronavirus vaccines after an analysis revealed that richer nations have bought enough doses to vaccinate its entire population at least three times before the end of 2021.

In contrast, only one in ten people in 67 of the poorest countries within the World Health Organization’s Covax group will have access to a coronavirus vaccine in that same time frame, their data showed.

Lack of transparency from governments and manufacturers has only perpetuated the problem, allowing countries to secretly accumulate stocks, researchers at John Hopkins University said.

“High-income countries have secured future supplies of covid-19 vaccines, but access for the rest of the world is uncertain,” they said.

“Governments and manufacturers could provide much-needed assurance for the equitable allocation of Covid-19 vaccines through greater transparency and accountability over these agreements.”

Estimated portion of unreserved coronavirus vaccine stocks



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