First wave of vaccine not for all
New Zealand has placed its latest bet in the global race for a Covid-19 vaccine, announcing a $27 million deal which could cover half the country’s population.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday said Cabinet ministers had signed off on an agreement with the Covax global alliance, which is backed by an international public-private consortium and is developing multiple possible vaccines.
New Zealand experts say there is great uncertainty, though international efforts to produce Covid19 vaccines have reached human trials and may begin to show positive results by the end of the year.
However, New Zealanders can’t expect to be vaccinated all at once, as it is likely ‘‘waves’’ of different vaccines will need to be acquired to cover the majority of the population. Ardern, while announcing the country would climb down Covid-19 alert levels in the coming week, said New Zealand would enter a legally binding agreement to buy any vaccine to emerge from the Covax Facility.
‘‘This is one of a number of key steps we’ll be taking to ensure New Zealanders have access to a safe and secure Covid-19 vaccine when one becomes available,’’ Ardern said.
New Zealand said it would join the Covax Facility in July. It is run by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, a public-private organisation made up of members including the World Health Organisation, Unicef and the World Bank, among others.
The Covax Facility investment was part of the Government’s broader Covid-19 vaccine strategy, which includes a $15m contribution to research by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, $10m towards an alliance of vaccine researchers in New Zealand, and $5m to upgrade manufacturing capability in New Zealand.
‘‘The Covax Facility ensures that Covid-19 vaccines are equitably distributed to every participating country worldwide . . . This investment will give us the option to purchase from a diverse portfolio of vaccine candidates, should one be successful,’’ Ardern said.
Cabinet had set aside ‘‘hundreds of millions of dollars’’ to enter such arrangements, and there would likely be other advanced purchase agreements signed.
‘‘I’m often asked: ‘What will make a difference to our border settings?’ . . . One of the major factors will be a vaccine.’’
Foreign Minister Winston
Peters yesterday said the agreement signed was an initial ‘‘pre-purchase’’.
‘‘The agreement will ensure that New Zealand receives enough vaccines to cover up to 50 per cent of the population of New Zealand and the realm, which includes Tokelau, Cook Islands and Niue,’’ he said.
More funding would be required to buy so many vaccines, if the Covax Facility succeeds in producing one. University of Otago Associate Professor James Ussher, director of the Government-backed Vaccine Alliance, said the domestic effort to develop a vaccine was in ‘‘full swing’’, with various prospective vaccines being developed for clinical assessment.
He said any vaccine produced in New Zealand would likely be part of a second wave of treatments, as phase three clinical trials, the final phase, of prospective vaccines were already underway overseas. ‘‘The pace of the development that we’re seeing so far is unprecedented, and it’s been incredibly encouraging how to see how quickly, but thoroughly, the process has been followed,’’ he said.
He said multiple vaccines would be needed, as some were being trialled on specific age groups and populations, meaning they may only be suitable for specific groups of people. Also uncertain was how long a vaccine might provide a person immunity for. ‘‘It’s unclear how it’s going to play out at the moment.’’