Can the real world vaccine COVAX?
For months, the World Health Organization has been calling on rich nations to donate supplies to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative. But the response to the international program known as COVAX has been somewhat impressive. In countries like Germany, about 45% of the population has now received at least one vaccine, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the national public health body. Elsewhere, however, the start of vaccination is just beginning. And in some African countries, such as Tanzania and Chad, vaccination has not even begun. Inequality of access to vaccination is the biggest challenge: 75% of vaccine supplies are shipped to only ten countries. Less than one percent of all doses have gone to countries with low GDP, the WHO said in a statement. writing for DW. Unfortunately, this represents a two-part recovery from the pandemic.  However, COVAX seems to have started gaining speed in recent days. At an online donor conference, additional funding of about $ 2.4 billion ($ 1.9 billion) was pledged about $ 400 million more than anticipated. That, says COVAX, will allow it to supply 1.8 billion more doses of vaccine to people in poor countries. A point in the ocean  These funding commitments can help COVAX get a little closer to its goal of distributing vaccine supplies more equitably around the world. But international aid organizations say they are not going well enough. Mareike Haase, who is in charge of global health policy at Bread for the World, told DW: Countries are pursuing their strategic interests and are inclined to donate directly to allies. But in our opinion it is COVAX that should be responsible distribution if it will be fair . Recently, for example, the United States pledged to distribute about 80 million doses of vaccine to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa. But U.S. President Joe Biden said only three-quarters of the supplies will be distributed through the international COVAX initiative, the rest will be sent directly. By directly distributing millions of vaccine doses to other countries, China is increasing strategic interests  In addition, supplies are just a drop in the ocean, Haase says. These are just short-term solutions. She says much more effort is needed in the face of new variants of the virus and the need to refresh strokes. We will continue to return to the situation where poor countries can not afford vaccines and that is why COVAX just does not go far enough. In addition, Haase is calling for patent protection to be waived for as long as the pandemic lasts. But the European Union continues to oppose the move. India suspends vaccine exports for now  Indias decision to ban vaccine exports is likely to come as a blow to COVAX. The Serum Institute of India (SII) was one of the largest suppliers of vaccines worldwide. But now exports have been suspended, in all likelihood until October. Initially, exports were supposed to resume in June. This could mean a shortage of millions of doses. The worlds largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute, produces COVID vaccines for the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and had been the largest source of vaccines in Africa before the ban. AstraZeneca supplies arrive through the COVAX scheme in Kenya  But India, itself, is currently hit hard by the pandemic. Exports were initially promised when the country was experiencing relatively low levels of infection. Then in the spring, seven-day incidence levels rose to about 200 per 100,000 inhabitants in just a few weeks. We see the traumatic effects of the terrible COVID-19 wave in South Asia a wave, which also severely hampered global distributions of vaccines, including COVAX, the WHO said in a written statement to DW. The vaccine gap remains  Big donations, on the one hand, and an export split, on the other: Aid organizations like Bread for the World are critical of COVAX itself. In our opinion it has already been shown that the COVAX system is essentially not working, Mareike told Haase DW. In her opinion, the fact that COVAX works voluntarily is a major hurdle. The problem is that countries that prefer to get their vaccines bilaterally rather than through COVAX have bought everything available and are raising supplies. At the same time, COVAX never got enough funding and companies preferred to sell their vaccines to the largest instead working with COVAX.   The Bread Expert for the World is also critical of COVAXs goals. Initially, the plan was to vaccinate enough people in the world to achieve herd immunity, but, in the meantime, there is talk of 20% to 30% of the population. This is a fraction of the number really required to stop the pandemic in its tracks. From the beginning we would like to see another system, a coercive system that aims to achieve equality and give all countries access to vaccines. Mareike Haase says it is necessary to carefully treat the promises made by Germany and the United States to COVAX when you see the huge gap at the same time.