TORONTO (AP) – The World Health Organization has given emergency permission to AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, a move that allows UN agency partners to send millions of doses to countries as part of a UN-backed program to tame the pandemic .
The WHO said in a statement on Monday that it was clearing the AstraZeneca vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India and AstraZeneca-SKBio of South Korea.
The WHO’s green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine is only the second issued by the UN health agency after the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was approved in December. Monday’s announcement should stimulate the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have signed up for the UN-backed COVAX effort aimed at delivering vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable people.
“Countries with no access to vaccines so far will eventually be able to vaccinate their health workers and populations,” he said. Mariângela Simão, the WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicine and Health Products, said.
The coronavirus infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million people. But many countries have not yet started vaccination programs, and even rich countries are facing shortages of vaccine doses as manufacturers struggle to increase production.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has already been approved in more than 50 countries, including Britain, India, Argentina and Mexico. It is cheaper and easier to handle than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires deep cold storage that is not widespread in many developing countries. Both vaccines require two shots per person, given weeks apart.
Last week, WHO vaccine experts recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 18, also in countries that have detected variants of COVID-19.
But this is contrary to the recommendation of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said that countries that have identified a virus variant first seen in South Africa should be ‘careful’ in using the AstraZeneca vaccine, indicating that other shots should be prioritized. instead.
The AstraZeneca vaccine makes up the bulk of COVAX’s inventory, and concerns have recently been raised after an early study suggests that it may not prevent mild to moderate illness due to the variant first seen in South Africa. not. Last week, South Africa scaled back its planned implementation of the AstraZeneca vaccine and instead used an unlicensed shot from Johnson & Johnson for its health workers.
COVAX has already missed its own target of initiating coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries, while shots have been rolled out in rich countries. Numerous developing countries have rushed over the past few weeks to sign their own private deals to buy vaccines, without waiting for COVAX.
WHO and its partners, including the GAVI vaccine alliance, have not said which countries will receive the first doses of COVAX. But an initial plan showed that a handful of rich countries that have signed up to several private vaccine companies, including Canada, South Korea and New Zealand, will also receive early doses of COVAX.
Some public health experts called it ‘very problematic’ and attributed it to the flawed design of COVAX, which enabled donor countries to double down. by buying vaccines from the program while also signing their own commercial transactions.
“Canada has ordered enough doses to supply its population about five times and now they want to accept their share of doses of COVAX, which would otherwise be given to poor countries,” said Anna Marriott, head of health policy for Oxfam International.
The chief scientist of the WHO, dr. Soumya Swaminathan, said rich countries that have signed up to receive COVAX vaccines will not turn down their requests.
“The COVAX facility is not going to punish countries,” she said in early February.
After promising more than $ 400 million to COVAX last year, Justin Trudeau said it was always his country’s intention to get vaccines through COVAX.
Marriott said rich countries planning to take doses of COVAX should reconsider their intentions, given their earlier calls for support for the attempted equal access to vaccines for all countries of the world, rich or poor.
“It looks pretty hypocritical,” she said. “Rich countries with their own supplies need to make the right call and not take vaccines from countries that are really in a dire situation.”
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This story corrects that doses are sent by WHO partners, not AstraZeneca’s partners.
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