Covid-19 vaccine donors warn of neglect of poor countries

Oslo: Vaccines that are being developed in billions of dollars and in record time promise to return to normal in Europe and the United States, but one of the main players in funding research is warning against the carelessness of the rest of the world and poor countries.

“I’m very concerned,” says Frederick Christensen, number two for the Global Coalition for Pandemic Preparedness Innovations.

“If images are now being spread around the world showing people in rich countries getting the vaccine while nothing is happening in developing countries, then this is a very big problem,” he said.

This coalition emerged in Oslo in 2017, in the awareness of the actors that a joint response is necessary to face epidemic threats such as Ebola, and has become an important party in the fight against Covid-19.

With the support of countries and charities such as the Gates Foundation and individual or commercial donors, a total of $ 1.1 billion has been earmarked to fund the development of nine potential vaccines against the emerging corona virus, including the American Moderna vaccine and the British AstraZeneca vaccine.

Christensen says in an interview with Agence France-Presse on Friday, “It’s really important to focus on research and develop more candidates because the world will need a lot of vaccines to be able to control this virus.”

And if the vaccination initiation process is a matter of days in the UK and weeks in Europe and the US, if the Vise / Biontech vaccine is approved by pharmaceutical agencies, then the concerns are nonetheless in terms of providing vaccines in the rest of the world.

Christensen indicates that around two billion doses have been committed through “Kovacs,” an initiative sponsored by the World Health Organization to accelerate the development and manufacture of vaccines against Covid-19, and is negotiating with laboratories. to provide fair access to vaccines.

But he clarifies that “despite this, many doses remain hypothetical, which means that we still do not have the final results” regarding the effectiveness of the vaccines.

In addition, two of the advanced stage vaccines, ie, Fayez / Biontec and Moderna, require storage at extremely low temperatures: -70 ° C for the first and -20 ° C for the second.

But how will they be distributed at high temperatures?

“For some countries and some segments of the population, this is possible of course, but it is very difficult,” says Christens. “We have visited places where the last kilometer is crossed on a motorcycle.”

“We have to think about the next wave of vaccines. Ideally, we should have single-dose (take) vaccines that have a long-term effect and low-cost products that are available all over the world,” he says, adding, ” so the work is never done. “

The Norwegian expert confirms that he understands the doubts of a large part of the population regarding vaccines that have been developed in a short period of time, but this reluctance will be overcome over time, according to him.

“It is clear that this is a cause for concern that can be understood, that is, everything happened very quickly and therefore something could happen,” he added.

However, he notes, “We must not forget that these vaccines have been tested in tens of thousands and I believe that once they are distributed, people will be convinced that this is the best way to protect themselves and their families.”

But if vaccines are directed towards the end of the tunnel, when will it be possible to get out of it to resume normal life?

Christensen points out that “it is really important to have a little patience because we are all optimistic now … But what we know is that these vaccines prevent serious infections, but it is not certain that they prevent the transmission of the virus.”

“We are also noticing the first signs of the challenges of producing enough and distributing enough,” he added, referring to reports on the difficulties Pfizer faces in delivering all vaccines planned for 2020.

“But if we can all get vaccinated, I think we can expect a normal life at least by 2022,” he concludes.