For balance in world vaccine situation

MASS vaccination against COVID-19 has begun in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and several other countries which have been able to acquire millions of doses of the vaccines for their people. These nations had paid in advance even before the vaccine companies had completed their tests and won approval for their products.

“Wealthy nations have bought up enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly three times over by the end of 2021 if those currently in clinical trials are all approved for use,” the Peoples Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of organizations including Oxfam, Amnesty International, and Global Justice Now, said.

Speaking at the 148th session of the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “even as vaccines bring hope to some, they have become another brick in the wall of inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots.”

“Even as they speak the language of equitable access, some countries and companies continue to prioritize bilateral deals… driving up prices, and attempting to jump to the front of the queue,” the WHO official said. Most manufacturers have prioritized regulatory approval in rich countries, where profits are higher, rather than submitting their dossiers to WHO for prequalification.”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, speaking in a ceremony for the world’s developing nations in New York City, said, “We need manufacturers to step up their commitment to work with the COVAX facility and countries around the world, in particular the world’s leading economies, to ensure enough supply and fair distribution.” He added, “Vaccinationalism is self-defeating and would delay a global recovery.”

Our own President Duterte had this to say in a pre-recorded speech aired before the UN General Assembly last December 4: “If any country is excluded by reason of poverty or strategic unimportance, this gross injustice would haunt the world for a long time. It would completely discredit the values upon which the United Nations was founded.”

Philippine vaccine czar Calito Galvez Jr. has said that 80 percent of the world’s coronavirus vaccine supply has been secured by rich nations. The Philippines expects to get its supply of at least 22.6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine after the government and private firms signed a deal last November 27, 0020 c but we expect them only around May. The country has been assured by China and Russia of supplies of their vaccines.

Amid all these reports of. the world’s rich nations having cornered most of the world’s available supplies of vaccines, a study commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce said that rich nations in North America and Europe may have locked up most of the supply of available vaccines but “No economy will be fully recovered unless the other economies are recovered.” In failing to ensure that people in the developing world would also gain access to the vaccines, leaders in the wealthiest nations are damaging their own fortunes, the study concluded.

It is hoped that the study will help bring about some balance in the present vaccine supply situation which is now heavily loaded against the world’s poor nations.