COVID- 19 Vaccines are here, how ready is Africa?

The year 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, but has seen 58 vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS- CoV- 2) be developed and in clinical trials, with some vaccines reportedly having more than 90 percent efficacy against COVID- 19 in clinical trials. This remarkable achievement is much- needed good news as COVID- 19 cases are currently at their highest daily levels globally.

The light at the end of tunnel that the entire world has been waiting for seems to be optimistically getting nearer and nearer by the day as we now already have four COVID- 19 vaccines whose efficacy results have been made public. These are the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine, the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The big inevitable question that we now ask ourselves as Africans is, “Are we ready in Africa to get doses to give to our people?” The process of rolling out vaccines to populations for consumption is not as easy as many may think. People out there think the vaccine is merely just put on a plane, delivered to the destination country and then given to the population. There is however, a lot more entailed than that. In fact, before you, as a country, decide to bring a vaccine to your people, you have to make thorough plans, engage all your experts and decide which vaccine will be suitable for your country looking at aspects like the cost of the vaccine, ease of administration, storage of that vaccine and the number of doses required to achieve complete immunity against the disease. Currently the four vaccines are about to be fully availed in the market after they have been fully approved, and there are also eight more that are undergoing their final trials. We expect results of some of these other eight candidates to be released in the next couple of weeks which will provide countries out there with more options to pick from looking at what suits them. We all understand that the entire world is under huge pressure due to this disease and that every country is looking to save its people and its economy as soon as possible, hence there will be stiff competition to buy doses of the vaccines quickly. So what will this do to regions like Africa where we know majority of the countries here do not have that competitive buying power to go toe- to- toe with other giant economies of the world?

The WHO in collaboration with the European Commission and France launched a program in April called ACT ( Access to COVID- 19 Tools)

Accelerator, whose aim is to bring together governments, global health institutions, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil societies and philanthropy with the aim of providing equitable access to COVID- 19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines. This program has three pillars, one of which is called COVAX. This pillar specifically focuses on ensuring equitable access of vaccines to every country out there so that small economies do not get left behind or out- muscled by the buying power of big economies. Just as an example, as we speak, the UK has begun vaccinating its population with the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine after its approval last week. They pre- ordered 40- million doses and an extra 7- millon doses of the Moderna vaccine. Now, a dose of the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine is USD20 each, and a person has to take two doses in order to achieve full immunity. That basically means double the cost per person in order for them to be fully immune against COVID- 19. A dose of the Moderna vaccine is USD33 each. Now, bringing this to the African context, how many countries here would be able to afford such in a well timely manner? This is where a program like COVAX comes in to ease these for lower economies. At the moment, the cheapest vaccine is that of Oxford- Astrazeneca which is valued at USD4 per dose. However, it’s not only the price that determines which vaccine candidate a country should go for. Issues like storage capacities and cold supply chain are a big concern, as well as the ease of administration of the vaccine as soon as it reaches the destination country. South Africa is in the process of securing their first batch of doses through the engagement of COVAX. The Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize recently announced that they will soon make a down- payment of R327million in order to get their first batch. But keep in mind that this first batch is aimed at priority groups like frontline workers, old age people and those with immunocompromised status like HIV patients as well as other suffering from underlying conditions. This may probably be 10 percent or even less of South Africa’s population, but already R327million has been spent. Now imagine the cost to vaccinate the whole population?

Hence my question, how ready is Africa?

Health For One, Health For All. Kenneth T. Photlokwe

MSc Medicine ( Vaccinology) – Wits SANBio Youth Ambassador Email: photlokwekenneth@ gmail. com