[ad_1]
The joint project of the World Health Organization and the Bill Gates Foundation, which should ensure that the corona virus vaccine will soon be available in the poorest parts of the planet, will likely face problems such as lack of money, transport planes, cooling devices and vaccines themselves. One of the main obstacles is that rich countries, even those participating in the Kovaks program, have independently provided millions of doses in direct negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, AP reports.
The major powers, the United States, China and Russia, which are also leaders in vaccine development, have not even joined “Kovaks”, a project supported by the WHO and the “Cepi” and “Gavi” foundations. The United States cited the “corrupt WHO” as the reason and the fact that it wants its citizens to get the vaccine first. China announces that it can join, but plans to give priority to its population and friendly countries. Russia has a similar attitude, writes the portal “Axios”.
The stratification along geopolitical lines is remarkable. Western countries hardly consider vaccines from China and Russia, although those two countries are already vaccinating their populations with domestically produced vaccines.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, declared the day before yesterday that it is time for states to start using money from national plans to fight kovid 19 to finance the “Kovaks”. The plan is to buy two billion doses through the project, which will be distributed to priority groups, such as health workers, by the end of next year, regardless of whether a country can afford them (they will receive them at a reduced price or free) . The money comes from richer countries and donors, and is invested in the production of nine candidate vaccines from the US, Europe, China, South Korea and Australia. The idea is to vaccinate health workers first and then the elderly, about 20 percent of the population. Serbia joined the program on September 18.
The European Union supported it with 400 million euros, but it will not buy vaccines through it, which can be interpreted as a doubt in the viability of the plans. Brussels, for its part, has signed contracts with companies to buy more than one billion doses, reducing the possibility that “Kovaks” will supply them, because it is certain that at first the production will not be able to satisfy the demand.
An additional problem will be how to provide transport in a “cold chain”, at low enough temperatures, from the factory to the patient, which is necessary for certain vaccines. Some require a double dose, which means twice as many syringes, needles, waste …
Clemens Oyer, a member of the WHO executive board and the EU’s chief vaccine negotiator, says he is concerned about the lack of transparency in Kovaks’ work.
“We would not ask about vaccines, quality, price, risks, technical platform. That is completely unacceptable, ”says Ojer for the AP, adding that the WHO did not ask for the opinion of the countries on the proposed strategy at all. She says the plan to vaccinate vulnerable groups around the world first is “noble but politically naive.”
The UK joined Kovax two weeks ago, although in the meantime it has supplied 340 million doses of six different vaccines through contracts with companies. The last 60 million were agreed with the American “Novavax”, and 30 million with the Belgian company that is owned by “Johnson and Johnson”. Officials did not want to say how much the Boris Johnson administration has given in advance for vaccines so far, but say they see the money invested as aid to other countries, because it will be used for vaccine development. Although no vaccine has yet been approved, British health workers have received a mass vaccination plan, which could begin in early November, reveals the BBC from a document that reached the media.
Although it is waiting as a saving solution that will end the pandemic, even an effective vaccine against the corona virus will not return to normal immediately in the spring, a group of prominent scientists from the British Royal Society warned this week. In the first place, because the vaccination process will take time, but it is not certain that everyone wants to receive the vaccine, because there is some public resistance. Furthermore, there are indications that it has a weaker effect on the elderly, so it is questionable whether they should protect themselves first.
Despite doubts, everyone is in a hurry. The European Medical Agency (EMA) announced yesterday that it has started testing the vaccine from the company “Astra Zeneca” and the University of Oxford, with the aim of speeding up the future approval procedure. Just a few weeks ago, testing of that vaccine was stopped due to an illness contracted by one of the participants. A week later, it continued in Britain, but not in the United States, where additional reports are expected.
[ad_2]
