For months, the The World Health Organization has asked countries to come together to ensure a fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines between rich and poor nations. Now he’s starting to lose his temper.
On Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that drug makers prioritized regulatory approval in wealthy countries, where profits are higher, rather than sending full dossiers to get the green light from the body global health. He said this could delay distribution through Covax, an initiative supported by WHO that aims to provide vaccines to the poorest countries.
“The world is on the verge of catastrophic moral failure,” said Tedros. “Even speaking the language of equitable access, some countries and companies continue to prioritize bilateral deals – bypassing Covax, increasing prices and trying to jump to the front of the queue. This is wrong.”
WHO’s struggles have opened the door for China to start stepping up its vaccine diplomacy, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi promising last week to distribute more than a million doses during a stint in Southeast Asia. This represented a geopolitical victory shortly before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who promised to put the United States back in WHO after Donald Trump left the organization last year.
“China’s ‘mask diplomacy’ in 2020 is being followed in 2021 by ‘vaccine diplomacy’,” said Ian Storey, a senior member of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. “The goals remain the same: to win friends and influence countries in Southeast Asia and to bury the memory that the pandemic started in China a year ago.”
Antony Blinken, Biden’s choice for Secretary of State, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the US is preparing to join Covax and see “how we can help ensure that the vaccine is distributed equitably”. Biden officially takes over on Wednesday in the US
China’s vaccines have received some high-level endorsements, with Indonesian President Joko Widodo receiving the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. filmed live on television last week in the fourth most populous country in the world, despite inconsistent effectiveness Dice. Brazil also began distributing 6 million doses of Sinovac on Monday – a turnaround for President Jair Bolsonaro, who had openly criticized Chinese vaccines last year.
‘I can not wait anymore’
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who last month said his country would not use any vaccine that was not approved by WHO, reversed the course last week and accepted one million doses of vaccine from China. He cited widespread use in places like Indonesia, Egypt and China, noting that Wang had received the vaccine and is still “in good health and can travel to different places”.
“Due to the need to defend our nation and protect our people from this deadly epidemic, we can no longer wait,” said Hun Sen in a message. published in a cabinet bulletin on Friday. “We are reversing what I said last time about accepting only vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization.”
Because they do not have regulatory bodies capable of examining scientific data, many developing countries have traditionally relied on the WHO approved list of vaccines to know which vaccines can be allowed for local vaccination campaigns.
At the end of 2020, the Pfizer Inc.-The BioNTech SE vaccine was the first, and so far the only, injected to receive WHO emergency validation since the outbreak began a year ago. With no low-income countries producing their own vaccines, the wealthiest nations secured 85% of Pfizer’s vaccine and all Moderna Inc.’s, according to London-based research firm Airfinity Ltd.
Although China has pledged to support WHO’s efforts, its vaccines are not among those acquired by Covax. A spokesman for Sinovac said the company has started to send data to WHO for prequalification of its coronavirus vaccine, known as CoronaVac. A group of WHO inspectors also traveled to China and will inspect their production facilities after completing the quarantine, the spokesman said.
Covax still plans to distribute 2 billion doses worldwide by the end of this year, with enough to protect 3% of the population in all participating countries by July, according to an email response to questions. The facility said it would consider purchasing any vaccine candidate that meets the global standards set by WHO.
Among the 11 candidates that can be selected for distribution, two – Tiro da Moderna Inc. and the one developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford – are ready for deployment and are being administered in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. It is not clear why Covax has not yet started to distribute these vaccines as well.
Tedros’ statements punishing companies for prioritizing rich countries where they can profit the most indicate that the global health agency sees the backlog as a result of companies.
AstraZeneca said on December 30 that it was seeking the WHO go-ahead, known as the body’s Emergency Use List, “for an accelerated path to vaccine availability in low and middle income countries.” A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the process.
Uneven Distribution
High-income countries secured 85% of Pfizer’s vaccine and all of Moderna’s vaccines
Source: Airfinity
The launch of Covax can begin “as early as February, depending on favorable regulatory outcomes and the readiness of national health systems and regulatory systems in individual participating economies,” said Iryna Mazur, Gavi spokesman, the Vaccine Alliance, who is co-leader of Covax.
Thailand purchased 2 million doses of Sinovac, and China promised to donate a total of 800,000 doses to the Philippines and Myanmar during Wang’s diplomatic effort last week.
During a visit to Manila, Wang received praise from Philippine authorities after committing to complete China-funded infrastructure projects, including a $ 400 million bridge and a $ 940 million freight rail project.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte rebuked this week a group of senators who examined the government’s plans to buy Sinovac after threatening to terminate a Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States if he did not. deliver at least 20 million vaccines immediately. “No vaccine, not staying here,” Duterte said last month of the military deal – a threat he made before, without moving on.
“Coronavirus vaccines have clearly become a political soccer ball in the growing US-China cold war,” said Paul Chambers, from the Center for Community Studies at Naresuan University, who has researched geopolitics in Southeast Asia for about two years. decades. “The frightening delay in launching Covax is exactly the opportunity that China is using to start and expand its supply of Sinovac to developing countries.”
– With the help of Philip Heijmans, Dong Lyu, Colum Murphy and Suzi Ring
(Updates with Blinken’s comments in the sixth paragraph.)