GENEVA / MANILA (Reuters) – Nations that may preserve COVID-19 vaccines while excluding others will deepen the pandemic, Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, issuing a final closes call for countries to participate in a global vaccine pact.
The WHO has an August 31 deadline for rich peoples to participate in the “COVAX Global Vaccines Facility” for sharing vaccinated hopefuls with developing countries. Tedros said he had sent a letter to the 194 member states of the WHO, urging participation.
The World Health Organization also raised concerns that the spread of the pandemic was now being driven by younger people, many of whom were unaware that they were infected, posing a danger to vulnerable groups.
Tedros’ pressure for peoples to join COVAX comes as the European Union, Britain, Switzerland and the United States strike at companies testing prospective fax machines. Russia and China are also working on faxing, and the WHO fears that national interests could hamper global efforts.
“We need to prevent vaccine nationalism,” Tedros told a virtual briefing. “Final deliveries shared strategically and globally are actually in the national interest of each country.”
The European Commission has urged EU states to launch the WIO-leading initiative, with concerns about its cost and speed.
More than 21.9 million people have been reported to be infected worldwide by the novel coronavirus and 772,647 have died, according to a Reuters census.
‘NET TWISTING ARMS’
So far, the COVAX facility has attracted interest from 92 poorer countries hoping for voluntary donations and 80 rich countries, a number slightly changed from a month ago that would fund the scheme, the WHO said.
Some nations are still waiting for the August 31 deadline before making a commitment, as the terms of the facility are yet to be finalized, said Bruce Aylward, who is leading the WHO’s ACT Accelerator initiative to deliver COVID-19. speed up diagnostics, drugs and faxes.
“We do not twist arms for people to get involved,” Aylward said. “We’ve had more and more conversations with a wider and wider group of players … to work through what the barriers to collaboration can be – issues around price, issues around timing, issues around national expectations.”
With more than 150 vaccines in development, about two dozen in human studies and a handful in late-stage tests, the WHO said that even countries that sign bilateral deals increase their chances by joining COVAX.
“Which one will be the candidate who will be successful, we do not know yet,” said Mariangela Simao, a WHO assistant director for access to drugs and vaccines. “By simultaneously participating in the facility that you do bilateral deals, you are actually betting on a greater number of vaccine candidates.”
COVAX now employs nine vaccine candidates.
The WHO remains concerned that infections among younger people are on the rise worldwide, putting elderly and sick people in densely populated areas at risk with poor health systems at risk.
“The epidemic is changing,” said WHO Western Pacific Regional Director Takeshi Kasai. “People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread.”
(Report by Ed Davies, Karen Lema, Neil Jerome Morales, Stephanie Nebehay, Michael Shields and John Miller; Edited by Martin Petty, Ed Osmond and Nick Macfie)
