For months, the The World Health Organization has called on countries to come together to ensure a fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines among rich and poor countries. Now it is starting to lose patience.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that drugmakers prefer to approve regulations in rich countries, where profits are highest, rather than submit complete dossiers to the green light of the World Health Organization. to get. He said it could delay distribution through Covax, a WHO-backed initiative aimed at delivering vaccines to poorer countries.
“The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said. ‘Although they speak the language of fair access, some countries and companies still prefer to prioritize bilateral transactions – they go around Covax, raising prices and trying to jump ahead. That’s wrong. “
The WHO’s fight has opened the door for China to step up its vaccine diplomacy, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi promising to hand out more than a million doses last week during a swing through Southeast Asia. It came down to 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 ‘mask diplomacy’ in 2020 will be followed by ‘vaccine diplomacy’ in 2021,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. “The goals remain the same: to win friends and influence countries in Southeast Asia and bury the memory that started the pandemic in China a year ago.”
Antony Blinken, Biden’s Secretary of State, told lawmakers Tuesday that the U.S. is preparing to join Covax and see how we can help ensure the vaccine is distributed fairly. Biden officially takes over in the US on Wednesday
China’s vaccines have received some high-profile approvals, while Indonesian President Joko Widodo has Sinovac Biotech Ltd. appeared on live television last week in the world’s fourth most populous country, despite its contradiction data. Brazil also began distributing 6 million doses of Sinovac on Monday – a precise sight for President Jair Bolsonaro, who was a vocal critic of Chinese vaccinations last year.
‘Can not wait anymore’
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who said last month that his country would not use vaccines not approved by the WHO, turned around last week and accepted one million vaccine doses from China. He mentions the widespread use in places like Indonesia, Egypt and China, noting that Wang received the vaccine and that he is still ‘healthy and can travel places’.
“Because we have to defend our country and protect our people from this deadly epidemic, we can no longer wait,” Hun Sen said in a message. Published in a cabinet newsletter on Friday. ‘We repeat what I said last time about accepting only EU-recognized vaccines World Health Organization. “
Because there are no regulatory bodies that can investigate scientific data, many developing countries traditionally rely on the WHO’s list of approved vaccines to know what shots they can allow for local vaccinations.
At the end of 2020, the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine was the first, and so far only, shot to receive emergency validation of the WHO since the outbreak began a year ago. No low-income country producing its own vaccines has richer countries insured 85% of Pfizer’s vaccine and all the According to Moderna Inc., according to the London research firm Airfinity Ltd.
While China has promised to support the WHO’s efforts, it does not count the vaccines obtained by Covax. A spokesman for Sinovac said the company had started submitting data to the WHO for a pre-qualification of the coronavirus vaccine, known as CoronaVac. A group of WHO inspectors have also traveled to China and will complete the production facilities after the quarantine, the spokesman said.
Covax still plans to distribute 2 billion doses worldwide by this year, with enough to protect 3% of the population by July in all participating countries, according to an email on questions. The agency said it would consider purchasing any candidate vaccine that meets global standards set by the WHO.
Among the 11 candidates who can distribute it, two – Moderna Inc. ‘s lap and the one developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford – are ready for implementation and are being administered in countries such as the USA and the UK. It is unclear why Covax has not yet started distributing the vaccines.
Tedros’ statements in which companies are sued for having to prioritize rich countries where they can make the most profit, suggest that global healthcare is considering the delay due to the ventures.
AstraZeneca said on December 30 that the WHO’s green light, known as the body’s list for emergency use, “seeks a faster path to the availability of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.” A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the stage of the process.
Uneven distribution
High-income countries received 85% of Pfizer’s vaccine and all Moderna’s
Source: Airfinity
The implementation of Covax could ‘start in early February in anticipation of favorable regulatory outcomes and the readiness of health systems and national regulatory systems in individual participating economies,’ said Iryna Mazur, a spokesperson for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which co-leads Covax.
Thailand has bought 2 million doses of Sinovac, and China has promised to donate a total of 800,000 doses the Philippines and Myanmar during Wang’s diplomatic push last week.
During a visit to Manila, Wang drew praise from Philippine officials after committing to the completion of infrastructure projects funded by China, including a $ 400 million bridge and a $ 940 million freight rail project.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte this week predicted a group of senators investigating the government’s plans to buy Sinovac, after he had earlier threatened to end a visiting powers deal with the US if it did not succeed. yields at least 20 million vaccines immediately. “No vaccine, stay here,” Duterte said last month about the military deal – a threat he had previously made without implementing it.
“Coronavirus vaccines have clearly become a political footballer in the escalating Cold War between America and China,” said Paul Chambers of the Center of Asean Community Studies at Naresuan University, who has been researching geopolitics in the Southeast for about two decades. -Asia. “The tremendous delay in launching Covax is exactly the opportunity China is using to launch and expand its offering of Sinovac to developing countries.”
– With the help of Philip Heijmans, Dong Lyu, Colum Murphy and Suzi Ring
(Updates with Blinken’s comments in the sixth paragraph.)