Honduras cannot “wait for bureaucratic processes or false decisions” to provide “peace of mind” to citizens with the COVID-19 vaccine, said Juan Carlos Sikaffy, president of the Honduran Private Business Council, which helped concludes the purchase by issuing a pledge bank.
Other countries are also becoming impatient. Unlike past disease outbreaks, where less affluent countries have usually waited for UN vaccinations and other agencies, many are now taking matters into their own hands. Experts are increasingly concerned that these stand-alone efforts could weaken a DA-backed program to get COVID-19 insights into the most useful people around the world.
Recently countries introducing Serbia, Bangladesh and Mexico began vaccinating citizens through donations or commercial contracts – an approach that could leave even fewer vaccines for the program called COVAX, since rich countries have cut most of this year’s supply.
Led by the World Health Organization, a consortium for the preparation of epilepsy called CEPI and a vaccine alliance called GAVI, COVAX was formed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines evenly. Countries can join together either to buy vaccines or to donate pictures.
Mustaqeem De Gama, a diplomat at the South African mission in Geneva, said the “level of urgency” was triggered by the spread of virus changes and “uncertainty as to when COVAX vaccines might arrive. “It was doubtful that countries that apply for COVAX will get even 10% of what they need.”
Even if the effort succeeds, the stated goal of COVAX is to vaccinate less than 30% of people in poor countries, meaning governments have to seek other sources to get enough blows to get herd immunity.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said his country had to cut its own treaties after watching rich countries scramble for the scarce sights. He criticized countries that bought, he said, more doses than they needed.
“It’s as if they expect to vaccinate their cats and dogs,” he said.
Although Serbia paid 4 million euros to COVAX last year, it has not received any hits yet and last month began their immunization campaign with vaccines from Pfizer, Sinopharm China and Russia.
Recent manufacturing delays in Europe are raising concerns about whether drug dealers can fulfill the diversification orders.
“There are so many contracts signed that I think it’s hard to see how the numbers could add up for all the doses prescribed in the future,” he said. Amanda Glassman, public health expert and executive vice president. of the Center for Global Development.
Last week, the African Union concluded a contract for 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, to be produced by the Serum Institute of India. That is in addition to the previously negotiated African Union contract for 270 million doses from several pharmaceutical companies and in addition to the 600 million doses that Africa expects to receive from COVAX.
Some experts warn that these new contracts could move COVAX further behind the line, especially if some countries are willing to pay a base price for distance.
To ensure that South Africans receive doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine promptly, government officials have willingly agreed to pay a higher price per view than Europe or North America. The first shipments arrived this week.
COVAX hopes to start sending its first vaccine bags to Africa later this month, but these plans are subject to change depending on manufacturers ’production capabilities and countries’ vaccine plans.
Mexico began vaccinating health workers in December because of a direct purchase agreement with Pfizer. In the last few weeks, the country has had to turn to the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which was expected to arrive next week, even though it has not been agreed with the Mexican rulers.
Kate Elder, senior vaccine policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders, said developing countries should not be criticized for obtaining private vaccination contracts because that is exactly what rich countries did last year.
“Every country is just doing what it feels it needs to do to protect its people,” she said, but the ability of poor countries and regions to get vaccinated could be quicker than COVAX’s efforts. to do the DA in the future.
“If countries are receiving vaccines on their own, how are WHO and GAVI delivering them?” she asked.
Although India is under contract to provide several hundred doses of COVAX vaccine, the sights have not yet been approved by the WHO, meaning India cannot release them for the DA program. In the meantime, India has already supplied neighbors, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, with more than 5 million doses.
Dr Haritha Aluthge from the Sri Lankan Association of Government Medical Officers, called for the WHO to intervene amid intense competition for the delivery of COVAX vaccines and failure.
“I have not received a single dose (from COVAX),” said Aluthge.
WHOros Tedros leader Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently warned that the world is on the verge of “catastrophic moral failure” if COVID-19 vaccines are not distributed fairly, but the group has no authority to force rich countries to ‘division.
His entrances to countries working in close relations were hardly noticed.
Norway is the only country that has said it would send vaccines to developing countries because its own citizens have been vaccinated, but it has not given how many. Britain said it would not send out any vaccines until it had completed its own immunization program. Australia, which has largely eliminated COVID-19, does not have a timeline for when they could share vaccines with their poor neighbors in southeast Asia and the Pacific islands.
The relentless pressure on the world’s vaccine supply may only lift when more shots succeed, said Krishna Udayakumar, director of the Duke’s Global Health Institute.
“COVAX is the only multifaceted global platform that allows for something close to global reach and equity, but nonetheless, it has access to a small number of vaccines,” he said. “The only way out is to get more vaccines.”
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Cheng reported from Toronto. Media-related writers Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Christopher Sherman in Mexico City, Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed to this report.