Countries Deprived of Vaccines
An important fact the representative of the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the President of
South Africa raised recently is that the greatest
protection against COVID-19 and its variants is to
make sure the peoples of the entire world are
vaccinated. Efforts by the WHO to ensure all
countries receive the vaccines they require, as
part of limiting the emergence of new variants,
have been undermined by lack of cooperation from
those countries with vaccines to spare. Instead,
Canada and other countries have responded to the
COVID-19 Omicron variant, the latest variant of
concern, by implementing travel restrictions
against several countries, most of them in
Southern Africa. Meanwhile, countries of the
oppressed, formerly colonized peoples and those
victimized by imperialist aggression and war have
been left to fend for themselves.
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa,
speaking at a conference in Dakar, Senegal on
December 6, condemned the new restrictions imposed
by the EU, UK, the United States and others
following the discovery of the new Omicron variant
by South African scientists in late November,
calling them "vaccine apartheid."
"You ask yourself, where is science? They always
said to us, base your decisions in science, but
when the moment comes for them to be more
scientific they are not," he said. He also accused
such nations of having "hoarded vaccines," saying,
"The greed they demonstrated was disappointing,
particularly when they say they are our partners,
because our lives in Africa are just as important
as lives in Europe, North America and all over."
Senegalese President Macky Sall noted that the
reaction of countries of imposing restrictions on
African nations would only increase the risk that
countries would withhold future information on
COVID-19 variants, fearing similar repercussions.
Remarks by South African President to Eighth
Access to COVID-19
Tools Accelerator Facilitation Council Meeting
President Ramaphosa elaborated on his December 6
remarks at the Eighth Access to COVID-19 Tools
(ACT) Accelerator Facilitation Council Meeting, an
initiative of the WHO on December 9. He stated in
part:
"Since its formation, the ACT Accelerator has made
remarkable progress in fulfilling its mandate to
make available to the most vulnerable countries
the tools they need to fight this pandemic.
"Today's meeting is as important and is as
necessary as our first meeting.
"The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over.
"Even before the emergence of the new Omicron
variant, many countries were experiencing rising
infections, increasing hospitalizations and
deaths.
"As the events of the past few days have shown, we
live with the threat from mutating variants, which
have the potential to unleash further devastation
in communities globally.
"We do not yet know whether the Omicron variant is
transmitted more efficiently, whether the variant
increases the risk of reinfection, whether the
variant causes more severe disease, or how
effective the current vaccines are against the
variant.
"And yet, several countries have decided to
isolate a number of countries on the African
continent.
"We should be concerned that some decisions are no
longer informed by science and are not taken on
the basis of exercising solidarity.
"This pandemic has shown how we respond to a truly
global crisis.
"It has shown several shortcomings and weaknesses.
"But we can and must improve how we respond to
crises.
"The lives and livelihoods of billions of people
are at stake here.
"We have repeatedly said that no-one will be safe
unless we protect vulnerable populations
everywhere.
"We do have a part of the solution: the Access to
COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, which, if fully
funded, would provide low middle-income countries
and low-income countries with vaccines,
treatments, testing and PPE [personal protective
equipment] for frontline health care workers.
"There are two important lessons we need to draw
from the current situation.
"Firstly, vaccine inequality is dangerous but it
is also completely avoidable.
"A year into the world's most ambitious
vaccination drive, no country should lack
sufficient access to vaccines.
"Yet, of the nearly 7.5 billion doses of COVID-19
vaccines administered globally by mid-November, 71
per cent had been administered in high-income and
upper-middle-income countries.
"Only 0.6 per cent had been administered in
low-income countries.
"Africa is the hardest hit by inequitable access
to these life-saving vaccines.
"Secondly, we need to invest in all aspects of
pandemic response.
"Alongside vaccination, testing and genomic
surveillance are needed to identify disease
hotspots and track the emergence of new variants.
"Treatments, including medical oxygen, are needed
for those severely affected by COVID-19.
"Exciting potential treatments are being
developed.
"We need to ensure that once they are proven to be
safe and effective, they should be equally
available to all countries.
"For this reason we still insist on a TRIPS Waiver
[the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Waiver],
even in its various forms where it can be
negotiated.
"We must invest in strengthening health systems
because health systems are what turn vaccines into
vaccinations and tests into testing.
"We need research and development to adapt our
tools and stay ahead of this mutating virus.
"We need the full suite of countermeasures -- they
being vaccines, treatments, tests, functioning
health systems, and personal protective equipment
-- to fight COVID-19 and save lives.
"And the world needs the ACT-Accelerator to make
this happen.
"This initiative exists to fulfil the most vital
purpose of all: to save lives.
"We cannot falter and I would like to say that
this is an area we dare not fail.
"It is therefore necessary that global leaders
come together to fully fund the ACT-Accelerator's
new Strategic Plan so that we can continue to save
lives, and so that we can end this pandemic, not
just for some, but for everyone, especially in the
most vulnerable communities."
Vaccine Hoarding
A study published on November 18 by the COVID
Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP),
entitled, "Holding the World to Account: Urgent
Actions Needed to Close Gaps in the Global
COVID-19 Response" corroborates and quantifies the
accusation that rich countries are hoarding
COVID-19 vaccines. COVID GAP is an initiative of
Duke University's Global Health Innovation Center
and COVID Collaborative.
COVID GAP's Launch and Scale Speedometer report of
November 26 notes that its "latest report focuses
on the 40 per cent and 70 per cent vaccination
coverage targets, which have been widely endorsed
by global leaders but without any action plan to
ensure it happens. Drawing on data from our Launch
and Scale Speedometer COVID research, as well as
the Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19,
and the WHO, we find that 82 countries (including
most low-income and African countries) are not on
track to meet 40 per cent vaccination coverage by
the end of 2021.
"At the global level, this is not a supply issue
but a distribution issue. The scale up of COVID-19
vaccine production over the past year has been
staggeringly successful; the world is now making
about 1.5 billion doses a month. We have enough
doses to vaccinate far more than 40 per cent of
the population in every country. However, much of
this supply is concentrated in a small number of
wealthy countries, who have more than they can
use. Based on supply and vaccination rate data, we
expect G7 and EU countries to collectively have
more than 830 million excess doses at the end of
2021. Meanwhile, many countries still face
significant supply gaps. For the countries that
have not yet reached 40 per cent coverage, our
analysis indicates that a further 1.05 billion
doses are still needed to reach the target. After
expected COVAX [COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access]
deliveries in November and December, these
countries will still face a gap of 650 million
doses."
Click to enlarge.
The report notes that the G7 countries have
pledged 1,618,765,480 doses for low and
middle-income countries to reach the 40 per cent
minimum global vaccination rate, but thus far have
only shipped about 319 million of these or about
20 per cent of the commitment. In the case of
Canada, it has pledged to donate 51,542,080 doses.
Of these, only 10 per cent have been shipped.
Notably, COVID GAP points out that "High-income
countries have continued to endorse the 40 per
cent vaccination target without undertaking
actions with the necessary scale and urgency to
realistically achieve it."
This report deals only with vaccinations and COVID
GAP says, "Future analyses will focus on
quantifying the need and tracking commitments for
therapeutics, diagnostics, and oxygen, as well as
future preparedness."
To read the full report from COVID GAP, click
here.
Lack of Reliable Access to Vaccines
On November 29, the African Union, Africa
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations, Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), UNICEF
and the WHO issued a joint statement on "Dose
Donations of COVID-19 Vaccines to African
Countries." They point out that the donations that
are currently arriving in Africa are problematic.
They state that "the majority of the donations to
date have been ad hoc, provided with little notice
and short shelf lives. This has made it extremely
challenging for countries to plan vaccination
campaigns and increase absorptive capacity. To
achieve higher coverage rates across the
continent, and for donations to be a sustainable
source of supply that can complement supply from
AVAT [African Vaccine Acquisition Trust] and COVAX
purchase agreements, this trend must change.
 "Countries need
predictable and reliable supply. Having to plan at
short notice and ensure uptake of doses with short
shelf lives exponentially magnifies the logistical
burden on health systems that are already
stretched. Furthermore, ad hoc supply of this kind
utilizes capacity -- human resources,
infrastructure, cold chain -- that could be
directed towards long-term successful and
sustainable rollout. It also dramatically
increases the risks of expiry once doses with
already short shelf-lives arrive in country, which
may have long-term repercussions for vaccine
confidence.
"Donations to COVAX, AVAT, and African countries
must be made in a way that allows countries to
effectively mobilize domestic resources in support
of rollout and enables long-term planning to
increase coverage rates. We call on the
international community, particularly donors and
manufacturers, to commit to this effort by
adhering to the following standards, beginning
from January 1, 2022:
"- Quantity and
predictability: Donor countries should
endeavour to release donated doses in large
volumes and in a predictable manner, to reduce
transaction costs. We acknowledge and welcome the
progress being made in this area, but note that
the frequency of exceptions to this approach
places increased burden on countries, AVAT and
COVAX.
"- Earmarking:
These doses should be unearmarked for greatest
effectiveness and to support long-term planning.
Earmarking makes it far more difficult to allocate
supply based on equity, and to account for
specific countries' absorptive capacity. It also
increases the risk that short shelf-life donations
utilise countries' cold chain capacity -- capacity
that is then unavailable when AVAT or COVAX are
allocating doses with longer shelf lives under
their own purchase agreements.
"- Shelf life:
As a default, donated doses should have a minimum
of 10 weeks shelf life when they arrive
in-country, with limited exceptions only where
recipient countries indicate willingness and
ability to absorb doses with shorter shelf lives.
"- Early notice:
Recipient countries need to be made aware of the
availability of donated doses not less than four
weeks before their tentative arrival in-country.
"- Response
times: All stakeholders should seek to
provide rapid response on essential information.
This includes essential supply information from
manufacturers (total volumes available for
donation, shelf life, manufacturing site),
confirmation of donation offer from donors, and
acceptance/refusal of allocations from countries.
Last minute information can further complicate
processes, increasing transaction costs, reducing
available shelf life and increasing risk of
expiry.
"- Ancillaries:
The majority of donations to date do not include
the necessary vaccination supplies such as
syringes and diluent, nor do they cover freight
costs -- meaning these have to be sourced
separately -- leading to additional costs,
complexity and delay. Donated doses should be
accompanied with all essential ancillaries to
ensure rapid allocation and absorption."
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 12 - December 12, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M510124.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
