PARIS: The development of new Covid-19 vaccines will not end the pandemic if not all countries get it. dose in a speedy and fair manner, disease experts warned Saturday.
Mar several nations consider implementation vaccine passports when international travel begins, the authors of an open letter published in the medical journal Lancet said that the collection of vaccine stock in richer countries would only bring a global health crisis.
They warned that “vaccine nationality” could leave Covax’s campaign aimed at getting vaccines to low- and middle-income countries as they suffer from severe dosage shortages for several years to come.
“The strong truth is that the world now needs more doses of COVID-19 vaccines than any other vaccine in history to provide enough vaccination for global vaccine immunity,” said lead author Olivier Wouters from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
“If vaccines are not distributed more equitably, it could be years before the coronavirus is brought under global control.”
Despite the fact that more than two dozen Covid-19 vaccines are either in development or approved for use, lower income countries they still face significant logical challenges in obtaining vaccines and delivering them to populations.
These include a lack of money to buy vaccines, as well as poor infrastructure for their transport and storage – especially as the mRNA vaccines currently on the market have to be kept too cold for a long time. the delivery.
And despite unprecedented public and private investment in vaccine development and supply, Covax estimates it will need an additional $ 6.8 billion in 2021 to secure supply for 92 developing countries.
Based on available sales figures, the authors reported that rich countries representing 16 percent of the world’s population had already received 70 percent of vaccine doses – enough to all protect their own citizens several times.
“By receiving a large number of vaccines in this way countries are putting a broad vaccine in their own numbers ahead of the vaccination of health care workers and high-risk numbers in poor countries,” said co-author Mark Jit from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The letter calls on manufacturers to accelerate the transfer of technology to developing countries to help them make doses at home, as well as price controls for what was meant by “overpriced” vaccines on the market. right now.
The authors stated that vaccines are developed by China, India and Russia, once authorized by the World Health Organization, this could be a great help to poor countries as their supply and storage was simpler than other US / European options.