International COVAX Programme: How Nations are responding

GAVI is the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. It is a public-private partnership across nations to increase the access of vaccines to poor countries. It has been leading the challenge by providing vaccines for the under-developing countries. Serum Institute of India (SII), the largest manufacturer of vaccines forms the backbone of this initiative. Here is where the problem begins, the private, as well as government manufacturers, and vaccine development are mostly based in the developed countries which have been accused of hoarding vaccines, giving expired products or products with very little shelf life remaining. For example, when India was hit by the second wave of covid-19 during March 2020 with less than half of the population vaccinated, the government and the SII received a lot of criticism on fulfilling the domestic needs first and hence SII was restrained from exporting vaccines.[1] There were even life threats over Adar Ponnawalla, the CEO of SII, who shifted to London amid concerns. [2]

Another challenge is the need for booster shots amid the new variants coming at the front like the newly Omicorn variant which has again pushed states toward lockdown. Again as booster shots will be required first which will be served will be the developed countries and poor countries will lag in vaccinating their people, which will again lead to different and stronger variants and thus the cycle will continue. Hence, vaccinating all the people till 2022 should be the prime aim of the countries instead of closing their borders and saving their population only which will help nobody.

Giving 70 percent of the world’s 8 billion people two shots will require 11 billion shots. Adding a third shot or booster pushes that target to at least 16 billion shots. Moreover, not all shots provide a strong response, particularly against omicron.[3] Also, nearly half of the vaccines delivered so far come from Chinese manufactures, these shots are much less effective than the US-made Pfizer-BioTech and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines which are much stronger against the new variants.

The next problem that is arising is the supply chains infrastructure in the under-developed countries. The vaccines need ultra-cold conditions to safely secure distribution and storage. Pfizer vaccines, one of the most efficient vaccines, need ultra-cold temperatures to store which African nations are unable to provide. On the other hand, Sinopharm, Moderna and Jhonson and Jhonson have no such conditions.

Only 8.9% of low-income countries have received vaccines as compared to high-income countries 78.4 % of the population have received the vaccine data as available in Our World in Data.[4] This unevenness in vaccine distribution shows that the covax programme which was to ensure that the vaccine is available everywhere has failed miserably.

Hoarding of vaccines

Vaccine production has ramped up quickly and now more than 8 vaccines have been approved by WHO for emergency usage then why have only 8.9 % of the low-income countries have been vaccinated? The production remains in the hands of developed countries and their power in losing the ropes to distribution. The wealthier nations have a huge surplus of vaccines which they are hoarding in the need of booster shots. The G7 and the EU combined would have 1.39 billion surplus vaccines by the end of the first quarter of 2022, even if 80% of all adults had vaccines and boosters, according to Airfinity’s analysis. If donations continue at their current pace, just 500 million of these would be given away, according to the organization’s analysis, leaving 890 million to spare.[5] Vaccine distribution will be speeded up if wealthier countries would cooperate not only in words but through action too. Only the US and Switzerland have committed to providing vaccines to countries in dire need.

The delay in vaccine procurement for low-income countries is never going to stop the pandemic, as suggested by vaccine manufacturers, stronger and vaccine-resistant variants will arise and no amount of booster shots will be effective in controlling the rise in cases. Only if more than half of the population is vaccinated by the year-end do we stand a chance to beat this pandemic.

The slogan for COVAX is “no one is safe until everyone is safe” but states have not been that philanthropic, in conjugation with the pharmaceutical companies and have been denying access to vaccines to low income countries, the prime aim of the project. Covax was not the priority, and it showed: the scheme had promised to provide 2 billion doses by the end of this year, but by July it had delivered only 95 million.[6]

What covax lacks is leadership and command in the panic situations which the states are in. WHO advisors suggest any G7 leader might be able to provide a solution to this deadlock situation we are facing. Someone with contacts who can negotiate with the superpowers to fight for the vaccination programme for the low-income countries. On the other hand, states have now started to directly contact the companies even those who are due vaccines through the Covax programme, like Rwanda which made agreements with Pfizer to directly import vaccine.[7]

It is not just the problem of vaccine re-distribution but what is required is also required by covax is fiscal resources for proper distribution of vaccines in the population for example in Benin only 267 shots were given each day, a pace so slow that 110,000 of the program’s AstraZeneca does expire.[8]Also, there is the problem of freezers which have been mentioned above Pfizer needs very low temperatures hence covax also need to install more freezers and backup generators, these countries also have electricity problems like Chad. Hence, covax to become a success need a lot of motivated coordinated and determined effort. Which, states who are in chaos due to rising omicron cases are trying only to save their ships first.

Conclusion

This behaviour of states is nothing new but a perfect example of classic realism. When a crisis occurs everyone wants to save themselves without consideration of others. In Thucydides words, “the strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept”. In realistic terms, powerful countries will secure themselves before saving everyone else whether it is climate change or pandemic wreaking havoc around the world. Financial contribution in stressful times becomes very difficult for states, if there is a hegemon at the stop pushing things it might be possible but right now the international political situation is chaotic which is further worsening the pandemic affecting the low-income states adversely.

Notes

[1] Kapur, Manavi (2021), “Why Africa feels let down by India’s largest Covid-19 vaccine maker”, Quartz India, 10 December 2021. URL:https://qz.com/india/2100997/africa-cdc-says-it-was-let-down-by-poonawallas-serum-institute/

[2]Kapur, Manavi (2021), “Why Africa feels let down by India’s largest Covid-19 vaccine maker”, Quartz India, 10 December 2021. URL: https://qz.com/india/2100997/africa-cdc-says-it-was-let-down-by-poonawallas-serum-institute/

[3] Rowland, Christopher (2022), “Vaccine makers were just beginning to catch up to demand. Then omicron hit.”, The Washington Post, 7 January 2022. URL:https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/01/07/vaccine-global-supply-boosters/

[4] Our World in Data, “ Share of people who received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine” https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-people-vaccinated-covid?country=High+income~Upper+middle+income~Lower+middle+income~Low+income

[5] Goldhill, Olivia (2021), “We have enough Covid vaccines for most of the world. But rich countries are stockpiling more than they need for boosters”, Stat News, 3 December 2021 URL:https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/13/we-have-enough-covid-vaccines-for-most-of-world-but-rich-countries-stockpiling-more-than-they-need/

[6] Nature, “Omicron: the global response is making it worse”, 7 December 2021.

URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03616-x

[7] Robbins, Rebecca and Benjamin Muellar, “Where a vast global vaccination program went wrong”, The New York Times, 7 October 2021. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/world/europe/covax-covid-vaccine-problems-africa.html

[8] Robbins, Rebecca and Benjamin Muellar, “Where a vast global vaccination program went wrong”, The New York Times, 7 October 2021. URL:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/world/europe/covax-covid-vaccine-problems-africa.html

Pic Courtesy-Vietnam News Agency

(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)