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LONDON – An ambitious humanitarian project to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the world’s poorest people faces a potential shortage of money, cargo planes, refrigeration and vaccines, and faces skepticism even from some of those it aims to help the most. .
In one of the biggest hurdles, rich countries have blocked most of the world’s potential vaccine supply through 2021, and the United States and others have refused to join the project, called Covax.
“The vaccine supply is not going to be there any time soon, and neither is the money,” warned Rohit Malpani, a public health consultant who previously worked for Doctors Without Borders.
Covax was envisioned as a way to give countries access to coronavirus vaccines regardless of their wealth.
It is run by the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency; Gavi, a public-private partnership, funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that purchases vaccines for 60 percent of the world’s children; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, another public-private partnership supported by Gates.
Covax’s goal is to purchase 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, although it is not yet clear whether the successful vaccine will require one or two doses for the world’s 7.8 billion people. Countries participating in the project can purchase vaccines from Covax or obtain them for free, if necessary.
An early problem that has arisen: some of the richest nations in the world have negotiated their own deals directly with drug companies, meaning they don’t need to be involved in the effort at all. China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States do not intend to join.
And so many rich countries bought vaccines from manufacturers, even before the injections were approved, that they have already used up most of the vaccine supply by 2021.
“As a continent of 1.2 billion people, we still have concerns,” said John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday.
He praised Covax for the solidarity it represents, but said there are serious doubts about the allocation, saying that envoys from African nations are meeting directly with vaccine manufacturers to ask “if we came to the table with money, how would we get enough vaccines to fill the gap? ? “
The European Union has contributed 400 million euros ($ 469 million) to support Covax, but the 27-country bloc will not use Covax to buy vaccines, in what some see as a vote of no confidence in the project’s ability to comply. Instead, the EU has signed its own deals to buy more than 1 billion doses, depriving Covax of the bulk bargaining power to buy injections for the mainland.
Gavi, WHO and CEPI announced in September that countries representing two-thirds of the world’s population had joined Covax, but acknowledged that they still need about $ 400 million more from governments or other sources. Without it, according to internal documents seen by The Associated Press before the organization’s board of directors meeting this week, Gavi cannot sign deals to buy vaccines.
Covax struck a major deal this week for 200 million doses from Indian vaccine maker Serum Institute, although the company made it clear that a large chunk of those will go to people in India.
By the end of next year, Gavi estimates that the project will need an additional $ 5 billion.
Covax said negotiations to secure the vaccines are progressing despite a lack of funds.
Aurelia Nguyen de Gavi, managing director of Covax, said nothing similar has ever been tried in public health.
Covax “is an enormously ambitious project,” he said, “but it is the only plan on the table to end the pandemic around the world.”
