The UN health agency says the emergency use list ‘opens the door’ for countries to speed up their vaccine approval processes.
The World Health Organization has listed Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, a critical step that the United Nations health agency has said it aims to make the vaccine more readily available in developing nations.
In a note released on Thursday, the WHO said validation of the vaccine – the first since the beginning of the pandemic – “opens the door for countries to accelerate their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine.”
It will also allow groups, such as UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization, to “acquire the vaccine for distribution to countries in need,” said the WHO.
“This is a very positive step towards ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines,” said Dr. Mariangela Simão, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, in the statement.
“But I want to emphasize the need for an even greater global effort to achieve sufficient vaccine supply to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere.”
Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine boxes arrive at an undisclosed location in Nicosia, Cyprus, December 26, 2020. [Stavros Ioannides/PIO/Handout via Reuters]
WHO said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine met its safety requirements and its benefits outweighed any potential risks.
The vaccine, which should be kept at ultra-low temperatures, is already being applied in several countries, including the United States, Canada, Qatar, Bahrain and Mexico.
Human rights groups have raised concerns about wealthier countries “accumulating” vaccines at the expense of developing countries.
A recent report by Amnesty International concluded that all COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Inc and 96 percent of Pfizer-BioNtech doses were provided by rich countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“Many countries have understood the vaccine, understandably, as a way out of this crisis and it has been a race,” Stephen Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice, told Al Jazeera this month.
“Instead of working together, we have adopted a ‘me first’ attitude in many countries and there has been a lack of multilateralism and global coordination in the world.”
Health professionals carry syringes with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the University Hospital in Nitra, Slovakia, December 26, 2020 [Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters]
The Director of the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, also warned that Africa may not receive vaccines until the second quarter of 2021.
Nkengasong called it a “moral issue” and urged the UN to convene a special session to discuss the ethical and fair distribution of vaccines to avoid “this North-South distrust of vaccines, which is a common good”.
The UN health agency, with the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), is leading a global effort called COVAX to secure and distribute vaccines to the poorest countries, to ensure that vaccines don’t just reach nations rich.
The COVAX alliance, supported by WHO, has agreements for almost two billion doses, with first deliveries scheduled in early 2021.
The alliance is in negotiations with Pfizer and BioNTech to secure the vaccine.