NEW DELHI (AP) – With coronavirus cases still on the rise, Honduras got tired of waiting to get vaccines through a United Nations program, so the small Central American country left alone, securing the shots through a private agreement .
Honduras “cannot wait for bureaucratic processes or wrong decisions” to give citizens “the peace of mind” offered by the COVID-19 vaccine, said Juan Carlos Sikaffy, president of the Honduras Private Business Council, who helped complete the purchase by providing a guarantee bank.
Other nations are also getting impatient. Unlike earlier disease outbreaks, where less wealthy countries generally expected vaccines to be delivered by the UN and other organizations, many are now taking care of the matter on their own. Experts are increasingly concerned that these autonomous efforts could undermine a United Nations-supported program to provide COVID-19 injections to the most needy people around the world.
Countries like Serbia, Bangladesh and Mexico recently started vaccinating citizens through donations or trade deals – an approach that could leave even less vaccines for the program known as COVAX, since rich countries have already snapped up most of this year’s supply .
Led by the World Health Organization, an epidemic preparedness coalition known as CEPI and a vaccine alliance called GAVI, COVAX was created to distribute COVID-19 vaccines fairly. Countries can partner to buy vaccines or to receive donated injections.
Mustaqeem De Gama, a diplomat from the South African mission in Geneva, cited “a level of desperation” fueled by the spread of variants of the virus and “the uncertainty of when COVAX vaccines can arrive”. He doubted that the countries that registered with COVAX “will receive up to 10% of what they demand”.
Even if the effort is successful, COVAX’s stated goal is to vaccinate less than 30% of people in poor countries, which means that governments must seek other sources to obtain sufficient vaccines to obtain collective immunity.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said his country was forced to close its own deals after seeing rich countries fight for the few shots. He criticized nations that, he said, bought more doses than they needed.
“It’s like they want to vaccinate all of their dogs and cats,” he said.
Although Serbia paid 4 million euros to COVAX last year, it has yet to receive an injection and last month began its immunization campaign with vaccines from Pfizer, China’s Sinopharm and Russia.
Recent delays in manufacturing in Europe raise concerns about whether drug manufacturers will be able to fulfill the multiplying orders.
“There are so many agreements being signed that I find it difficult to see how the numbers could add up to all the doses ordered to actually be produced in the near future,” said Amanda Glassman, public health expert and executive vice president of the Center for Global Development .
Last week, the African Union struck a deal for 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, to be produced by the Serum Institute of India. This adds up to a previously negotiated agreement with the African Union for 270 million doses from various pharmaceutical companies and in addition to the 600 million doses that Africa expects to receive from COVAX.
Some experts warn that these new deals could take COVAX even further to the end of the line, especially if some countries are willing to pay a premium for speed.
To ensure that South Africans received doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine quickly, government officials reluctantly agreed to pay a higher injection price than in Europe or North America. The first shipments arrived this week.
COVAX expects to begin shipping its first batches of vaccines to Africa later this month, but these plans are subject to change depending on the manufacturers ‘production capacities and countries’ immunization plans.
Mexico began vaccinating healthcare professionals in December because of a direct purchase agreement with Pfizer. In recent weeks, the country has been forced to resort to the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which was due to arrive next week, although it has not been approved by Mexican regulators.
Kate Elder, senior vaccine policy advisor at Doctors Without Borders, said developing countries should not be criticized for securing private vaccine deals, as that was exactly what rich countries did last year.
“Each 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 the vaccine faster than COVAX could hamper future UN efforts.
“If countries are getting vaccines on their own, then how are WHO and GAVI delivering to them?” she asked.
Although India has been contracted to supply COVAX with several hundred million doses of the vaccine, the vaccines have not yet been authorized by WHO, meaning that India cannot release them to the UN program. Meanwhile, India has provided its neighbors, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, with more than 5 million doses.
Dr Haritha Aluthge, of the Association of Medical Officers of the Government of Sri Lanka, asked WHO to intervene amid intense competition for vaccines and COVAX’s failure to deliver.
“Not a single dose (of COVAX) was received,” said Aluthge.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently warned that the world is on the verge of a “catastrophic moral failure” if the COVID-19 vaccines are not distributed fairly, but the agency has no authority to force rich countries to share .
His calls for countries to act in solidarity were largely ignored.
Norway is the only country that said it would send vaccines to developing countries because its own citizens are immunized, but did not specify how many would be donated. Britain said it would not divert any vaccines until it had completed its own immunization program. Australia, which mostly eliminated COVID-19, has no deadline to share vaccines with its poorest neighbors in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
The relentless pressure on global vaccine supplies can only increase when more injections are successful, said Krishna Udayakumar, director of the Duke Global Health Institute.
“COVAX is the only multilateral global platform that allows for something close to global access and equity and yet has access to a relatively small amount of vaccines,” he said. “The only way out is to get more vaccines.”
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Cheng reported from Toronto. Associated Press 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.