LONDON (AP) – Some 60 countries, including some of the poorest in the world, are likely to come to a standstill in the first shots of their coronavirus vaccination because almost all deliveries blocked by the global program they want to help have blocked as late as June. word.
COVAX, the global initiative to provide vaccines to countries that do not have the capacity to negotiate for scarce supplies themselves, has sent more than 25,000 doses to low-income countries just twice a day in the past week. Deliveries stopped almost Monday.
During the past two weeks, according to data compiled daily by UNICEFless than 2 million doses of COVAX in total have been cleared for shipment to 92 countries in the developing world – the same amount injected into Britain alone.
On Friday, the head of the World Health Organization downed the “shocking imbalance” in the global vaccination COVID-19. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said that while one in four people in rich countries received a vaccine, only one in every 500 people in poorer countries received a dose.
The shortage of vaccines stems mostly from India’s decision to stop exporting vaccines from its Serum Institute factory, which produces the vast majority of the AstraZeneca doses COVAX has counted on to produce about a third of the world population at the same time, while the coronavirus is strong worldwide.
COVAX will only send vaccines cleared by the WHO, and countries are increasingly impatient. In some of the first countries to receive COVAX deliveries, stocks are declining, and the expected delivery of second doses in the currently recommended 12-week window is now in doubt. In a statement, the vaccine alliance, known as GAVI, told The Associated Press that 60 countries were affected by the delays.
In the vaccination tents set up at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, many of those who showed up for their first jabs were uneasy about when the second would arrive.
“My fear is if I do not get the second dose, my immune system will be weak, so I will die,” said Oscar Odinga, a government official.
Internal WHO documents obtained by the AP show the uncertainty about deliveries “causes some countries to lose confidence in the COVAX (attempt).” As a result, WHO is considering speeding up the approval of vaccines from China and Russia, which have not been approved by any regulators in Europe or North America.
The WHO documents show that the UN agency faces questions from COVAX participants about allocations, in addition to ‘uncertainty as to whether those vaccinated in round 1 will be guaranteed a second dose.’
The WHO declined to comment specifically on the issues raised in the internal material, but had previously said countries were “very keen” to get vaccinations as soon as possible and insisted they had not yet heard any complaints about the process. .
Concerns over link between AstraZeneca shot and rare blood clots also ‘created nervousness around safety and efficiency,’ WHO noted. Among the proposed solutions is a decision to expedite the review of additional products from China and Russia.
WHO said last month that it was possible to alleviate the Chinese vaccines by the end of April.
Some experts have noted that Sinopharm and Sinovac, two Chinese vaccines, do not have published data, and there are reports of people needing a third dose to be protected.
“If there is anything we are missing out on if we did not properly assess the risks of serious side effects of these vaccines, it would undermine confidence in all the good products we use that we know are safe,” said Dora Curry, director said. of health equity and rights at CARE International.
Other experts are concerned that delays could undermine confidence in governments, which are particularly effective in their vaccination programs. and soon relied on second doses.
“If there is no high-vaccination coverage worldwide, we could pull out the pandemic in a few more years,” said Lavanya Vasudevan, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute. “Every day when the virus is circulating, it is an opportunity to turn into a more deadly variant.”
Earlier this month, the WHO called on rich countries to urgently share 10 million doses to meet the UN target to start COVID-19 vaccinations in each country within the first 100 days of the year. So far, countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to COVAX. But there are simply no doses to buy, and no country has agreed to immediately share what he has.
Bilateral donations of doses tend to go along political lines, rather than to countries with the most infections, and they are not nearly enough to compensate for the goals set out by COVAX. Think of Global Health, a data site run by the Council on Foreign Relations, identified 19 countries that donated a total of 27.5 million doses to 102 countries as of Thursday.
“You can make a strong argument that we are better off making donations in a crisis and getting the pandemic under control than vaccinating low-risk groups at home,” said Thomas Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Bollyky said COVAX is a huge disappointment and the only option for most people in the world.
According to the International Rescue Committee, COVID-19 cases and deaths increased last month in numerous crisis-stricken countries: by 322% in Kenya, 379% in Yemen and 529% in northeastern Syria.
The agencies behind COVAX – WHO, the vaccine alliance GAVI and CEPI, a coalition for epidemic preparedness – on Thursday celebrated the delivery of 38 million life-saving vaccines to more than 100 countries.
Brook Baker, a vaccine expert at Northeastern University, said the praise was misplaced.
“Celebrating doses that are adequate for only 19 million people, or 0.25% of the world’s population, is deaf-mute,” he said. He added that it was time for WHO and partners to be more honest with countries.
“WHO and GAVI have repeatedly obstructed and overdelivered, so why should we believe that in a few months’ time they will suddenly be able to increase production and deliveries?” he said.
Duncan Nyukuri, a doctor on infectious diseases, tried outside the vaccination tents in Nairobi on Thursday to ensure people get their first dose.
“If you are receiving the first dose and you are not receiving the second dose, it does not mean that your body will be weaker, or that you are at increased risk of contracting infection,” he said. ‘What this means is that your body will develop some immunity to the coronavirus infection. But this immunity is not as good as someone who has received both doses. ‘
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Hinnant reported from Paris. Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed.
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