BY STAFF REPORTER
In an effort exerted to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and win the battle, uninterrupted supply of the vaccines to all countries is an issue that cannot be overlooked as discrimination can aggravate the spread of the pandemic and threaten the lives and health of people from all countries regardless of differences by race, ethnicity, and geography or any differences.
However, at such a critical time, many of poorer countries are left behind with increased inequalities for COVID-19 vaccines.
Vaccine nationalism threatens to turn the triumph of science to give the world vaccines against COVID-19 into tragedy, says a piece produced under the title “A global compact to counter vaccine nationalism.”
According to the article, the success of several initiatives, many funded by taxpayers, to rapidly develop and test several safe and effective vaccines has been nothing short of spectacular. The social promise of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was to reduce the underlying inequalities by race, ethnicity, and geography that COVID-19 has both made visible and amplified.
Yet, most of the billion vaccine doses administered have been in high-income countries (HICs), with most low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) left behind. WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance have created COVAX to finance SARS-Cov-2 vaccines for LMICs, yet supply of vaccines is still short and coming from only a few companies, the study further states.
“Global vaccine production capacity in non-pandemic times is too small and too concentrated in a handful of pharmaceutical companies.”
However, as most of the vaccine producer companies could not meet much of the world’s COVID-19 vaccine needs; and worse than this, vaccine nationalism is causing disparities among countries, it is a must for countries to upgrade their vaccine manufacturing capacity.
In this regard, the study proposes integrated three-pillar of which one is expanding vaccine supply and counter vaccine nationalism through enhancing production capacity by private pharmaceutical companies without encouraging the rent-seeking behavior enabled by patent law. And Africa must build its capacity in this regard.
“Next, uninterrupted supply of life-saving vaccines cannot be left only to market forces, or worse-insular political decisions. The second pillar we propose is a global vaccine manufacturing compact housed in less populous countries with good scientific and training infrastructure, a respect for legal contracts, and a reputation for fair play. Canada, Norway, Singapore, and Switzerland are possibilities, as might be several others-some of which are in Africa.”
True, Africa has to strengthen its capacities and competences in manufacturing vaccines to treat pandemics not only COVID-19, but also other health crises instead of waiting for aid or imported medication in order to deal with health threats on the continent.
“The production of vaccines on African soil could make it easier and faster to treat and prevent diseases, so that the continent’s countries can recover from health crises a lot quicker.”
This has the potential to slow down the eradication of threats such as COVID-19, and can cost African countries millions of lives, as well as the added cost of importing medicines and stabilizing their economies.
In fact, following the witnessed limitation in distributing COVID-19 shots fairly for poorer countries and the sense of vaccine nationalism exhibited by high income countries that affects global anti-COVID-19 pandemic cooperation, attention has turned to Africa in a way the continent can manufacture its own vaccines and what it would take.
As part of this initiative, some of African countries have understood the importance of manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines so as to reduce the dependence on imports and aid and secure the lives of their people from the pandemic.
Senegal, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco among others have successfully joined the growing list of Africa countries to secure the patent right to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccines next year.
Several companies have also expressed their keenness to produce COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.
Recently, the South African pharmaceutical company, Aspen, has announced commencing production of hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine for African countries. To speed up the process, the company is getting a large funding boost from the U.S. government.
During a virtual press briefing held in connection with the commencement of COVID-19 jabs production, Mark Marchick, a top executive for the U.S. International Development Financial Corporation, said Aspen would receive about 712 USD million to produce vaccine for people in Africa.
“Our consortium of development financing institutions would provide a direct loan to Aspen, among other things, to strengthen their balance sheet with long-term financing, support vaccine production and expand their operations with core operations based in South Africa. This loan will help them increase capacity to support Aspen’s effort to produce vaccines for the continent this year and next year,” Marchik said.
Gayle Smith, the U.S. State Department coordinator for the global COVID-19 response, said the investment will help Africa deal with long-term health issues.
“We see this investment as in the short-term a really viable response to the urgent need on the continent for vaccines for COVID and also, importantly, as a long-term investment in the capacity of the continent to increase its own production of this vital goods so there is a greater availability and resilience over time, so it’s a short-term investment with a long-term vision,” Smith said.
It is estimated that the world needs at least 11 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to at least help communities return to normal lives. So far, less than 2 percent of Africans have received a vaccine.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD JULY 8/2021
