Coronavirus vaccines will not be evenly distributed, history suggests

“Political leaders in this country did not consider this an American vaccine,” said David M. Osinsky, a professor at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and author of Polio: The American Story. ..

“They thought of this as a vaccine made by American know-how and the brilliance of America, a gift to the world.”

That optimistic vision never came true. Although polio was eradicated in many parts of the world decades ago, wild polio infections still occur in some countries. And after nearly 50 years, the tone changed.

Vaccine competition is becoming more urgent every day in a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than a million people. However, in some countries, “depending on where you live, some people may want to take it much faster than others.Vaccine nationalism.. “

Many public health experts warn that vaccines are best distributed as needed, not nationality. Walter A. Orenstein, Associate Director of the Emory University Vaccine Center, said: “For the safety of our health, it is in our interest to help other countries get rid of the outbreak of covid-19. But the world seems to be heading in a different direction. I will.

On Monday, a faint light of hope emerged in the end to return to normal. US pharmaceutical company Pfizer has announced that the coronavirus vaccine developed by German biotechnology company BioNTech is more than 90% effective in the first trial.

Wealthy countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have invested millions of dollars in various vaccine trials.China and Russia have already begun to administer their own vaccines — their efficacy and safety Health experts say they are still suspicious.

The United States under President Trump has shown that sharing is not a priority. Trump administration Refused to participate Covax is a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute billions of vaccines by pooling funds to invest in slate of vaccine candidates.

More than 150 countries, including China, are participating in Covax, but many are working on their own plans in parallel. So far, there is no mechanism for developed countries to distribute surplus vaccine doses. Joe Biden, who will take office in January, hasn’t said whether he will participate in the effort.

“The United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Canada have closed transactions large enough to vaccinate the entire population. In contrast, vaccines are available in more than 150 countries (including dozens of low-income countries). A pooled global effort to distribute fairly to Canada has only secured 700 million doses, “Slater wrote.

“From a historical point of view, what you are seeing is not really unusual.” David P. Fiddler, a part-time senior researcher in cybersecurity and global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said. “It is unlikely that there was a mechanism for worldwide distribution of vaccines and drugs on a fair and accessible shared basis.”

In 2009, when H1N1, known as swine flu, was sweeping the world, the United Nations urged wealthy countries to allow poorer countries to get more vaccines. Countries, including the United States, Brazil and France, have promised to donate 10 percent of their stockpiles to UN immunization efforts. But in October of that year, UN officials said that was not enough.

“The challenge is … to build solidarity between rich and poor countries to ensure that the right vaccines are available.” Said At the time, David Navarro, the United Nations coordinator to fight the new strain of influenza.

A few weeks later, the United States faced an unexpected shortage, Back track To that promise. “At this point, vaccination of the country’s citizens is a priority, and that’s what we do 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said then US Secretary of Health and Welfare Kathleen Sebelius. It is reported that he said it.

Another recent example tells a similar story. Inequality is an obstacle to vaccine-related cooperation. Countries, including Indonesia, when the world was struggling to develop a vaccine for H5N1, or bird flu, which began to spread significantly among humans in 2003. report In 2006, we had the most cases in the world and shared some of the virus samples with WHO-related laboratories.But in 2007, Indonesia Declaration “Virus sovereignty” has announced that it will stop sharing specimens after discovering that some samples were shared without consent with an Australian laboratory that is not a member of WHO.

Indonesia is a richer country for the samples that it and other poor countries have given to the lab for free to develop vaccines that Indonesia will have a hard time finally getting. Claimed to have been used by the laboratory.

“Cannot be shared [virus] Samples are free, “said Lily Sristiowati, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health. Were told Reuters of the year.

For both H1N1 and H5N1, outbreaks progressed before vaccines became essential, and a fair sharing system was not introduced. The crisis has revealed a legacy of inequality that the world is not moving to remedy through lasting processes and institutions.

“Public health tends to be a victim of its own success,” Fidler said. “The H1N1 crisis showed the need to build some sort of permanent mechanism, so we didn’t have to create anything special when the next pandemic occurred, but that’s Covax. This is an ad hoc initiative. “