BY DARGIE KAHSAY
A year after the outbreak of COVID-19, there comes a new hope for the world population as developments of vaccines for the deadly pandemic is becoming real.
Following the announcement of the founding of vaccines by different pharmaceutical companies, rich countries are ordering the vaccines with billions of dollars for their citizens, according to the international media. Many rich countries are already ordered a huge amount of vaccines, but from the developing world no country has still ordered the vaccine although the pandemic hits the glob equally, rich and poor.
As the pandemic is global and hits all corners of the world without and border, color and wealth differences, many scholars are calling for the fair and timely allocation of vaccines for all countries, poor and rich.
According to an article published at Bloomberg by Andreas Kluth, rich countries have already placed their vaccine orders but poor countries can only hope not to be left out. Hence, he argued there should be a mechanism for the timely and fair allocation of vaccines for poor countries of the world.
For Andreas the world is better off sharing vaccines because survival shouldn’t depend on where you live and purely moral case isn’t the only one to be made for cooperation. He added that multilateral share of vaccines would save many additional lives.
A lab at Northeastern University in Boston has modeled two counterfactual scenarios of what would have happened if a vaccine had been available in March 2020, the author cited. In one, the first two billion doses are snapped up by rich countries, while only the remaining billion are allocated among all others. In the second, all three billion are distributed from the start to all countries in proportion to their populations.
In the first or “uncooperative” case, the vaccine would have averted 33 percent of global deaths through Sep. 1. In the second or “cooperative” scenario, it would have prevented 61 percent. That’s a lot of lives saved — even in countries that would have had the vaccine in either scenario, the scenario stated according to Andreas’ article.
According to this scenario, he stated, if all countries cooperate, the world can achieve an optimal outcome and defeat the pandemic soon and decisively. If they don’t cooperate, Covid will drag on and there’ll be many more deaths.
He argued that cooperation is the only way to defeat the pandemic and timely access of vaccines for poor countries is vital and the world should give due attention for the proper allocation of vaccines for developing countries.
In June, the African CDC hosted a conference and discussed on COVID-19 vaccine needs on the continent with political leaders and technical experts of the continent. Following the discussion, the African Union Bureau of Heads of State and Government in August endorsed COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access Strategy, according to Africa CDC.
Any how, Africa CDC scheduled a conference named “Preparing for the fair, equitable and timely allocation of COVID-19 Vaccines in Africa” to be held on December 14 and 15 virtually, Africa CDC announced on its website.
The aim of the forum is to bring together continental and global public health leaders and policy makers to advance the work towards the AU’s COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access Strategy, Africa CDC pointed out.
The Conference will solicit input with the African continent in mind in order to develop a frame work that will guide fair allocation, coupled with timely and equitable access of COVID-19 Vaccine across the continent.
According to Africa CDC up to 05 December 2020, Africa reported over 2.24 million African COVID-19 cases with over 53,543 deaths. Still the pandemic is spreading throughout the continent and daily cases are reported from each country of the continent daily with hundreds and thousands.
In principle, regional and international institutions and concerned scholars are calling for, not to be left behind any one during the vaccine distribution. But, practically rich countries are racing on ordering the vaccines with billions of dollars to purchase from the producer factories.
According to an article published by WHO on 03 December citing report by the Eurasia Group stated that leaving low-and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs) without access to vaccines amid the COVID-19 pandemic will cause significant economic damage that puts decades of economic progress at risk – for both LLMICs and advanced economies alike.
WHO organizes Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which is a global cooperation which supports the development and equitable distribution of vaccines for the entire world to fight COVID-19. “However, the program still has a significant funding gap of US$ 28.2 billion – with US$ 4.3 billion needed urgently to fast-track critical areas of work”, WHO stated.
According to WHO if the shortfall isn’t met, low and low-middle income countries will have delayed access to the vital tools in 2021, which will result in a protracted pandemic with severe economic consequences for the entire world.
WHO stated that ACT Accelerator is a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom stated that the ACT Accelerator is the global solution to ending the pandemic as quickly as possible by ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 tools. “Contributing to the ACT Accelerator is not just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing for all countries – socially, economically and politically”, Dr. Tedros added.
According to a Eurasia Group, The ACT Accelerator is not a decision-making body or a new organization, but works to speed up collaborative efforts among existing organizations to end the pandemic. It added that working to ensure the tools can reach the people who need them.
For Eurasia Group the members of ACT Accelerator share a commitment to ensure all people have access to all the tools needed to defeat COVID-19 and to work with unprecedented levels of partnership to achieve it. It added that working to ensure the tools can reach the people who need them is a global common agenda.
Many scholars are calling the international community, donors and developed countries to increase their donation to the ACT Accelerator so as for the equitable and timely allocation and provision of COVID-19 vaccines for the developing countries than acting independently to buy for their own citizens living in their borders. As the pandemic is global its solution is also acting globally by working hand in hand.
The Ethiopian Herald December 9/2020
