VThe acines manufactured in India for the global vaccine access program, Covax, arrived in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Colombia in the past 10 days. This was undoubtedly a moment of celebration for the fact that the miracle of science was being shared – but it was offset by the shame that many countries hit hard during the pandemic have not yet received vaccines.
Safe and effective vaccines have been developed and approved at record speed, giving us a crucial new way, in addition to traditional public health measures, to protect people from the virus. We must now ensure that they are available to everyone, everywhere. Sharing doses, boosting manufacturing by removing barriers and ensuring that we use data effectively to reach communities left behind is the key to ending this crisis.
I am grateful that India is sharing doses now and I also welcome the G7 countries that are committed to sharing part of their vaccines, as well as promising significant amounts of new funds for Covax.
However, of the 225 million doses of vaccine that have been administered so far, the vast majority have been in a handful of rich, vaccine-producing countries, while most low- and middle-income countries watch and wait. A me-first approach may serve short-term political interests, but it is self-destructive and will lead to a prolonged recovery, with trade and travel continuing to suffer.
Any opportunity to beat this virus must be seized with both hands. New variants are appearing that show signs of being more transmissible, more deadly and less susceptible to vaccines. The threat is clear: as long as the virus is spreading anywhere, it will have more opportunities to mutate and potentially undermine the effectiveness of vaccines everywhere. We can end up back to square one.
Heads of state, international agencies and civil society groups have already signed a declaration of the vaccine’s heritage that calls on governments and manufacturers to speed up regulatory processes and increase manufacturing.
But the increase in manufacturing will not happen on its own. We live in an exceptional moment in history and we must rise to the challenge. Whether it’s dose sharing, technology transfer or voluntary licensing, as the WHO Covid-19 Technology Access Pool itself encourages, or renouncing intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested, we need to do all possible efforts.
There are flexibilities in trade regulations for emergencies and, certainly, a global pandemic, which has forced many societies to close and caused so much damage to businesses – large and small – qualifies. We need to be on the warpath and it is important to make it clear what is needed.
First, we need to manufacture and produce sustainable vaccines worldwide. This will be useful in this pandemic and critical for future ones. Some companies, such as AstraZeneca, have shared their licenses so that vaccines can be manufactured in several locations. Others, like Pfizer and Sanofi, have made deals for technology transfer, such as finishing vaccine bottles. Some governments, like Canada, have also made deals with individual companies and are installing entirely new manufacturing units, which will produce new doses in a matter of months.
These are significant steps, but we cannot rest until everyone has access, and we need to ensure long-term, sustainable vaccine supply chains that are much larger than those we have now. This will become even more important if we have to vaccinate people with boosters or reformulate vaccines to combat variants. Waiving patents temporarily does not mean that innovators will lose it. As during the HIV crisis or in a war, companies will receive royalties for the products they manufacture.
There are some things that the private sector does very well and there are other areas where governments need to intervene. I do not believe that, globally, we are exercising all of our manufacturing strength at the moment. For example, some manufacturers were unable to produce successful candidate vaccines, which was to be expected, but their production facilities could be reused for vaccines that are proven to work. So I am pleased to see President Biden announce that Johnson & Johnson and Merck will now form a partnership to increase vaccine production.
It is also important that low- and middle-income countries increase their domestic manufacturing capacity. Just as the yellow fever vaccine is now produced in Dakar, Senegal, an investment in manufacturing could see the same thing done with the Covid-19 vaccines.
Vaccinating the whole world at once has never been done. But if we can put a rover on Mars, we can certainly produce billions of vaccines and save lives on Earth.
Although governments and pharmaceutical groups are essential to the equitable distribution of vaccines, everyone has a role to play. For multinational companies that depend on trade and travel, for example, donating to Covax is the quickest way to speed up the effort to end the pandemic and get humans moving again. For individuals, especially those who have been fortunate enough to be vaccinated, you can also show your support by donating to Covax, which in itself sends a powerful message to governments that vaccine equality is the right thing to do.
It is not just a matter of defeating Covid from a medical point of view. The reality for millions of people is that this pandemic has blocked the job market and made it even more difficult to put food on the table. Children’s development and education have stagnated. These effects are as serious as the pandemic itself and one more reason why, through vaccination and other health tools, we must recover together.
And in terms of global security, the faster we can vaccinate, the faster we can focus on tackling other threats, such as the climate crisis, which has not disappeared while our attention has been consumed by the virus.
The future is ours to write. We will not be held back by politics, business as usual or by those who say we cannot. This is the biggest crisis of our lives, but seeing vaccines being launched in Ghana should only increase our collective enthusiasm to ensure that no country is left behind. Although the virus has taken advantage of our interconnection, we can also turn the tables using it to spread life-saving vaccines faster and faster than ever.
If not now, when?