Explanation: What is vaccine nationalism?

The new coronavirus vaccine is still a bit off.

of America Signed multi-billion dollar agreements with at least six major pharmaceutical companies to ensure a total supply of 800 million doses of separately developed vaccines for novels Coronavirus.. It’s more than one dose for every American citizen. The agreement means that if any of these companies succeed in developing a vaccine, they have an obligation to provide the agreed supplies to the United States sooner than anyone else.

The UK has similar agreements with several companies, ensuring doses of about 340 million doses, or about 5 doses per person. Similar arrangements have been reached by the European Union and other countries such as Mexico.

The new coronavirus vaccine is still a bit off. With a vaccine developed by Russia China International demand is not well valued. However, the way countries pre-book their vaccine supplies is often billions of dollars in candidate vaccines that are currently uncertain at present, so whenever a vaccine is finally developed, It raises questions about the availability and availability of vaccines. It also coined the term “vaccine nationalism”.

Why are you concerned about “vaccine nationalism”?

These pre-agreements raise concerns over the fact that the vast majority of the world without the money to bet on non-guaranteed candidates could render the vaccine inaccessible.

After all, the ability to produce vaccines is limited. Anything produced in the first few months or years must be sent to richer countries to fulfill their contractual obligations, so waiting for vaccines to these countries can be long.

Also, not all candidate vaccines are successful. There will be great demand for doing so, especially from countries with pre-agreements that have provisions that allow them to increase supply for more money. Therefore, the price of vaccines may rise, and in many countries vaccines may not be available.

The ideal situation is to make the vaccine available to those who first need it most. Experts must provide first-line access to the vaccine to front-line health care workers, emergency workers, the elderly and sick pregnant women, and other similarly vulnerable populations around the world. I accept. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Why does the country store vaccines?

Coronavirus vaccines are used by governments around the world as an opportunity to impress their people and the international community. The government wants to show the public how concerned they are about their safety and health. Therefore, we want to store as much vaccine as possible. And to the international community, and their own public, they want to flaunt their scientific capabilities and expertise. This is also the reason why China and Russia are in the process of approving vaccines that have not yet completed the necessary trials to prove their safety and efficacy. Declaring the first to develop a vaccine has a political dividend.

Is there a precedent for such pre-booking in other occurrences?

In fact, the scarcity and uncontrollability of new coronavirus vaccines are not unfounded. There is precedent: In 2009, following the outbreak of the H1N1 or swine flu, wealthy countries stocked up vaccines in a manner similar to current pre-booking. As a result, many vaccines in Africa have been unavailable for several months. Some countries in the United States and Europe have finally agreed to release 10% of their stock to other countries, but only after it becomes clear that they no longer need the vaccine.

Similarly, antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV patients have not been available in Africa, the worst affected region for several years since its development in the 1990s.

Scientists and experts argue that such a strategy may not even work for countries that can stockpile vaccines. If epidemics continue in some parts of the world due to lack of access to vaccines, the virus will circulate much longer than other methods. It means that other countries continue to be at risk, at least economically, due to ongoing global supply chain disruptions due to movement, labor and trade restrictions in much of the world.

So what are the future ways to deal with this issue?

This is not to say that there is no alternative to this “first” approach taken by rich countries. The World Health Organization (WHO), along with several other international alliances, has launched a platform called the ACT (or Access to Covid19 Tools) Accelerator Program. Its purpose is to promote development, production, and equitable access. COVID-19 Vaccines and even remedies and drugs. The vaccine portion of the program is called the COVAX facility.

COVAX is supposed to do for the world what richer countries do at individual levels. Invest money in key candidate vaccines to accelerate development and production. However, this has another important purpose. To make a successful vaccine affordable and affordable to all. It seeks to achieve this by ensuring that all participating countries have a supply that covers at least 20% of their population at a uniform price. Then, as more vaccine doses become available, they will be distributed to countries in proportion to their population size and the extent of the problems they face.

Similar to the US and other countries that have reached prior agreement, COVAX is expected to fund the research and development of multiple vaccine candidates. The facility is currently supporting nine leading candidates. We’re asking the country to join the platform and donate money so that everyone can benefit. However, with more than 170 countries under discussion, few agree to fund the initiative. Recently, WHO noted that COVAX facilities require at least $100 billion, but not even 10% of the amount collected so far.

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