The head of the World Health Organization on Monday fabricated the profits and inequality in vaccines to drugmakers, saying it was “not right” that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated COVID-19 for older people or health workers in poorer countries. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said most vaccine manufacturers are targeted at places where ‘profits are highest’.
Tedros kicked off the WTO’s meeting of a week-long executive council – virtually from its headquarters in Geneva – by complaining that one poor country received only 25 vaccine doses, while more than 39 million doses were administered in almost 50 richer countries.
“Only 25 doses have been given in one country with the lowest income – not 25 million, not 25,000 – only 25. I have to be blunt: the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said. said. He did not specify the country, but a WHO spokesman identified it as Guinea.
“It is right that all governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and the elderly first,” he said. “But it is not right for younger, healthier adults in rich countries to be vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries. There will be enough vaccine for everyone.”
Tedros, an Ethiopian who calls his first name, nevertheless applauded the scientific achievement behind the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the pandemic broke out in China, where a WHO-backed team has now been deployed to investigate the origin of the coronavirus.
“Vaccines are the shot in the arm we all need, literally and figuratively,” Tedros said. “But we now face the real danger that even if vaccines give hope to some people, it becomes another brick in the wall of inequality between the world of the world’s possession and possession.”
He noted that the WHO-supported COVAX program, which aims to allow vaccines to all countries, rich or poor, based on need, has so far secured 2 billion vaccine doses from five producers and options for a billion doses more.
“We plan to start deliveries in February,” he said. “COVAX is ready to deliver what it was created for.”
The target date may be a high order, as a major developer of vaccines for the developing world – the Serum Institute of India – has not yet confirmed a date and predicts that its implementation may not take place before March or April. .
In his opening speech, Tedros made some of his most difficult public remarks yet to vaccine manufacturers and criticized ‘bilateral transactions’ between them and countries that, according to the WHO, could harm the effectiveness of the COVAX facility – and went further into the issue of to raise profits.
“The situation is exacerbated by the fact that most manufacturers prefer the adoption of regulations in rich countries, where profits are highest, rather than submitting the full dossiers to the WHO,” he said.
This seems to indicate a shortage of data received by vaccine manufacturers, according to the UN health agency, so that the WHO can approve their shots for wider emergency use.
After the global COVID-19 death toll was 2 million higher On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres pleaded with the world’s leading economies to ensure that the distribution of vaccines is fair.
“Vaccines are rapidly reaching high-income countries, while the poorest in the world have nothing. Science is succeeding – but solidarity is failing,” he said. “Governments have a responsibility to protect their people, but ‘vaccination’ is a self-defeating one and will delay a global recovery.”
Dr Clement Martin Auer, a board member of Austria, had sharp words and questions for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which also co-leads COVAX with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
While calling the principles of equal access to vaccines a ‘fantastic idea’, Auer was guilty of concluding COVAX as ‘slow’ and not ‘important’ contracts. He defends the European Union, which counts many of the richest countries in the world among its 27 members, because it received vaccinations for its 450 million citizens and was ‘the largest donor’ to support COVAX.
“We in the European Union were skeptical that GAVI-COVAX has the means and capacity to fulfill its tasks and to negotiate the necessary contracts and to ensure the needs of our citizens,” Auer said, adding that the management of COVAX ‘rejected’ it. proposals negotiated by GAVI and the EU.
He said GAVI-COVAX early last year did not include mRNA vaccines such as those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in the COVAX portfolio.
“This was a big mistake, considering that the mRNAs are the earliest on the market and the gold standards when it comes to COVID vaccines,” Auer said.
The WHO has approved Pfzier-BioNTech for emergency use against coronavirus and may approve Moderna this week.
Dr Bruce Aylward, a special adviser to Tedros, said the WHO had a detailed discussion with Pfizer. We believe we will have access to the product soon. He said the mRNA vaccines were ‘important’ but ‘extremely difficult’, referring among other things to the requirements for cold chain and that they were ‘very expensive’.
“What we are risking is to get at least 20% of the world vaccinated this year, and more ideally,” Aylward said. “We are in a strong position to pull out with vaccines worldwide. We just need the help of our member states in particular to make it a reality.”
In connection with the vaccine news, Israel has entered into an agreement with Pfizer and promised to share large amounts of medical data with the international drug giant, in exchange for the continuing flow of its difficult vaccination.
Proponents say the deal could enable Israel to become the first country to vaccinate most of its population, while providing valuable research that could help the rest of the world. But critics say the deal raises major ethical concerns, including possible privacy breaches and the deepening of the global gap in access to coronavirus vaccines.
Due to the ultra-cold storage required for the Pfizer vaccine, it is more expensive and difficult to use than some competitors, including the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, but studies show that it is very effective. Israeli media reported that Israel paid at least 50% more than other countries for the Pfizer vaccine.