Thursday, September 30, 2021
Poor countries lack vaccination doses
WHO accuses vaccine manufacturers of manipulation
In the poor regions of the world there is hardly any progress in vaccination speed because there are no corona vaccines. Many industrialized countries, on the other hand, have millions of cans thanks to lucrative agreements with manufacturers. The WHO sees profit maximization as the main driving force behind it.
The lack of pace with corona vaccinations in poorer countries is due to a lack of vaccine, and according to a senior representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) this is due to market manipulation. Bruce Aylward, WHO Secretary General’s Advisor on Vaccination, called for manufacturing companies to be more transparent about their production and supplies. The WHO target of having vaccinated ten percent of people in all countries by the end of September has not been achieved. A few dozen countries, especially in Africa, are significantly lower.
Aylward takes care of the Covax vaccination initiative, with which the WHO originally planned a fair distribution of vaccines worldwide. The rich countries were on board, but when vaccines were finally available, they made separate deals with the manufacturers. Covax has signed contracts for the delivery of hundreds of million vaccine doses, but is waiting for delivery. The program received a total of US $ 9.8 billion (around EUR 8.5 billion) for the purchase of vaccination doses. “Someone is manipulating the market,” said Aylward. “The biggest buyer is sitting on the money, has signed contracts and receives no deliveries – something strange happens in the market.”
Aylward sees profit maximization as the motive. The manufacturing companies argued against it, they delivered after receiving the orders. Governments in rich countries would have signed their treaties earlier than Covax. Aylward did not want to accept that: Governments that were well supplied could ensure that further orders were not sent to them, but to Covax. Perhaps richer countries would like to get deliveries and then donate vaccine doses in order to have more control over the distribution. They often wanted to deliver to certain countries with donated cans.
To achieve the ten percent target, only 200 million vaccine doses were necessary, said Aylward. Measured against the 1.5 billion Corona vaccine doses that are manufactured according to the IFPMA World Pharmaceutical Association, that’s a piece of cake. Why Covax is not being supplied quickly in view of such production volumes is not understandable. Aylward drew a comparison with a lifeboat: “I would rather not be in the same boat with the rich countries, they would rip the life jackets under their spikes. I would rather be in the boat with the poorer countries that are used to sharing it.”
Now the focus must be on the next goal: a vaccination coverage of at least 40 percent in all countries by the end of the year. To achieve this, almost two billion doses of vaccine are needed for poorer countries. The WHO is counting on a planned G20 meeting in October in Italy. Governments would have to put pressure on companies to disclose manufacturing and deliveries, Aylward said.