For months, the The World Health Organization has called on countries to unite to ensure a fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines among rich and poor countries. Now he is starting to lose patience.
On Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said drug manufacturers had prioritized regulatory approval in rich countries, where benefits are higher, rather than filing complete dossiers to get the green light. the world health agency. He said this could delay distribution through Covax, a WHO-backed initiative that aims to supply vaccines to the poorest countries.
“The world is on the brink of catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said. “While they speak the language of equitable access, some countries and companies continue to prioritize bilateral agreements, flipping Covax, raising prices and trying to jump to the top of the queue. That’s wrong.”
WHO struggles have opened the door to China to begin increasing its vaccine diplomacy, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi committed last week to delivering more than a million doses during a tour of the South. East Asia. This meant a geopolitical victory just before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who promised to put the US back in the WHO after Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the organization last year.
“China’s ‘masking diplomacy’ in 2020 is being followed in 2021 by ‘vaccine diplomacy,'” said Ian Storey, a senior member of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. “The goals remain the same: to make friends and influence Southeast Asian countries and bury the memory that started the pandemic in China a year ago.”
Antony Blinken, the election of Biden as Secretary of State, he told lawmakers Tuesday that the United States is preparing to join Covax and look “at how we can help ensure the vaccine is distributed equitably.” Biden officially takes over on Wednesday in the US
China’s vaccines have received some high-profile support, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo has received the statement Sinovac Biotech Ltd. shot live television last week in the fourth most populous nation in the world despite inconsistent effectiveness data. Brazil also began distributing 6 million doses of Sinovac on Monday, roughly for President Jair Bolsonaro, who had been a staunch critic of Chinese vaccines last year.
“Can’t wait anymore”
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who last month said his country would not use any vaccine that was not approved by the WHO, last week reversed the course and accepted a million doses of vaccine from the United Nations. China. He cited widespread use in places such as Indonesia, Egypt and China, noting that Wang had received the vaccine and was still “in good health and can travel to places.”
“Because of the need to defend our nation and protect our people from this deadly epidemic, we can no longer wait,” Hun Sen said in a message published Friday in a newsletter “We are investing what I said last time about accepting only vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization.”
Because they do not have regulatory bodies with the capacity to examine scientific data, many developing countries have traditionally relied on the WHO-approved list of vaccines to know what traits they can allow for local vaccination actions.
At the end of 2020, the Pfizer Inc.—The BioNTech SE vaccine was the first, and so far only, to receive a shot WHO emergency validation since the outbreak began a year ago. Without low-income countries producing their own vaccines, the richest nations have gotten 85% of the Pfizer vaccine and all Moderna Inc., according to research firm Airfinity Ltd., based in London.
Although China has pledged to support WHO efforts, its vaccines are not among those sought by Covax. A Sinovac spokesman said the company has begun sending data to the WHO for a prequalification of its coronavirus vaccine, known as CoronaVac. A group of WHO inspectors has also traveled to China and will inspect its production facilities after completing quarantine, the spokesman said.
Covax still plans to distribute 2 billion doses worldwide by the end of this year, enough to protect 3% of the population in all participating countries before July, according to an email response to the questions. The facility has said it will consider purchasing any candidate vaccine that meets global standards set by the WHO.
Among the 11 candidates you can choose to distribute, two – The shot of Moderna Inc. and the one developed by AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford University are ready for deployment and are being managed in countries such as the US and UK. It is unclear why Covax has not yet begun distributing these vaccines.
Tedros ’statements that punish companies for prioritizing rich countries where they can make the most profits indicate that the global health agency sees the delay as a result of companies.
AstraZeneca said on December 30 that it was seeking the WHO’s green light, known as the agency’s list of emergency uses, “for an accelerated path to vaccine availability in low- and middle-income countries “. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what stage the process is at.
Uneven distribution
High-income countries have achieved 85% of the Pfizer vaccine and all of Moderna
Source: Airfinity
The deployment of Covax could begin “as early as February pending favorable regulatory outcomes and the preparation of health systems and national regulatory systems in individual participating economies,” said Iryna Mazur, a spokeswoman for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance , co-directed by Covax.
Thailand bought 2 million doses in Sinovac and China promised to give a total of 800,000 doses to Philippines i Myanmar during Wang’s diplomatic push last week.
During a visit to Manila, Wang received praise from Filipino officials after committing to completing China-funded infrastructure projects, including a $ 400 million bridge and a $ 940 million freight railroad project.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte this week scolded a group of senators who examined the government’s plans to buy Sinovac, after previously threatening to end a Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States if not he got it. administer at least 20 million vaccines immediately. “No vaccine, no stay here,” Duterte said last month of the military deal, a threat he has made before without continuing.
“Coronavirus vaccines have clearly become a political football in the growing Cold War between the United States and China,” said Paul Chambers, of the Center for Community Studies at Naresuan University, who has investigated the geopolitics in Southeast Asia for about two decades. “The daunting delay in launching Covax is exactly the opportunity China is using to start and expand its Sinovac supply to developing countries.”
– With the assistance of Philip Heijmans, Dong Lyu, Colum Murphy and Suzi Ring
(Updates with Blinken’s comments in the sixth paragraph.)