New bill for WHO vaccine plan if governments go it alone

LONDON / BRUSSELS / GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization will receive a flood of promises of support for its COVID-19 vaccine plan for all next week.

But the bureau has already had to scale up its ambition again.

The United States, Japan, Britain and the European Union have closed their own deals to secure millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for their citizens, ignoring UN body warnings that “vaccine nationalism” will push supplies .

If other countries that can afford it follow a similar approach, then the WHO’s strategy to combat the coronavirus pandemic worldwide and eliminate equivalent risks, experts warn.

“If that were to happen, it’s pretty clear that there would not be enough volumes of vaccine available for all other countries, especially in the first six to nine months,” said Alex Harris, head of global policy at Wellcome Trust Healthcare .

Countries wishing to be part of the WHO initiative, called COVAX, must submit interests by Monday.

More than 170 countries, including Canada, Norway, South Korea and the United Kingdom, have submitted non-binding expressions of interest to participate in the scheme, which the WHO has designated as the only global initiative to ensure COVID -19 faxes are available worldwide for rich and poor countries.

It has registered nine COVID-19 vaccine candidates and proposed plans to receive and deliver 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 across countries applying.

But it is struggling to get richer countries fully on board outside of promises of funding and warm words about donating surplus faxes.

Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom criticized Ghebreyesus’ nations for sending vaccines, warning that the strategy would exacerbate the pandemic. In a recent call for support for Monday’s deadline, he wrote letters to members requesting their participation.

The EU Commission is “fully committed” to the success of COVAX, while entering into parallel talks with fax manufacturers for deliveries for the block, a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Britain said it was supporting COVAX to ensure equal access to faxes, including funding, while doing its own bilateral offering deals.

White House did not immediately comment on the situation. The United States did not participate in the launch of the program in April or an event for fundraising in May.

PARTICIPATION

In particular, the EU’s aggressive dealings on fax facilities and lukewarm statements about COVAX have undermined the initiative, which is being co – led by the WHO, the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and the CEPI Coalition for Epidemic Preparation Innovations.

The European Commission is likely to pledge cash to COVAX, but it also secures its own supply deals to Member States, and considers COVAX too slow and expensive.

Brussels has told countries it can help fund COFAX but cannot seek to buy faxes through both schemes, a Commission spokesman said. Forced to choose, some countries have completely eliminated COVAX.

The Czech Republic and Portugal were mentioned as foreign supporters, but government support seems to be cool after joining the EU vaccine procurement program.

Prague has instead opted for the EU program.

Portugal has requested an initial delivery of 6.9 million doses of vaccine when the EU program becomes available, the government said.

Asked if it would participate in COVAX, a spokeswoman for the country’s drug regulator INFARMED said it would coordinate its participation in the program with other European countries.

Other WHO members, who are already major donors to existing global vaccine programs not related to COVID-19, are also still on the fence.

Brazil, with the second-worst outbreak of coronavirus outside the United States, has not yet decided whether to participate, a health care spokeswoman said.

In Japan, Deputy Health Minister Hisashi Inatsu said he would like to introduce discussions on participation, but the government did not say when they submitted an official statement of interest on Monday.

Like many rich countries, Japan has ordered its own supply of Scots, with nearly 250 million doses of potential AstraZeneca vaccines booked (AZN.L), Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech (BNTX.O).

RADICAL SEDUCTION

Officials say both COVAX and government contracts could run in parallel, but that is a radical departure from the original plan outlined in the spring.

In trade alone, countries will create “a few winners and many losers,” warned Richard Hatchett, director of CEPI, on Monday.

It also means that poorer or less powerful countries can go to the back of the queue for faxes that can help them control the pandemic.

“The risk is that access to COVID-19 vaccines will be defined by purchasing power and the ability to sign pre-sale agreements instead of medical needs as the shifting epidemiological situations,” said Dimitri Eynikel, EU representative on medicines and vaccines for doctors without Grins.

The initiative is all the more important for the WHO, as control grows over its treatment of the pandemic. The results of the first round will highlight the challenge of tackling a global crisis with competing individual interests.

One senior European government official explained the dilemma for rich nations: how can you support a vaccine for developing countries when it may not be enough for your own people? Relocating resources abroad “is difficult to sell at home,” he said.