Global vaccine plan may allow rich countries to buy more
LONDON (AP) — Politicians and public health leaders have publicly committed to equitably sharing any coronavirus vaccine that works, but the top global initiative to make that happen may allow rich countries to reinforce their own stockpiles while making fewer doses available for poor ones.
Activists warn that without stronger attempts to hold political, pharmaceutical and health leaders accountable, vaccines will be hoarded by rich countries in an unseemly race to inoculate their populations first. After the recent uproar over the United States purchasing a large amount of a new COVID-19 drug, some predict an even more disturbing scenario if a successful vaccine is developed.
Dozens of vaccines are being researched, and some countries — including Britain, France, Germany and the US — already have ordered hundreds of millions of doses before the vaccines are even proven to work.
While no country can afford to buy doses of every potential vaccine candidate, many poor ones can’t afford to place such speculative bets at all.
The key initiative to help them is led by Gavi, a public-private partnership started by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that buys vaccines for about 60 percent of the world’s children.
In a document sent to potential donors last month, Gavi said those giving money to its new “Covax Facility’’ would have ”the opportunity to benefit from a larger portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines.”
Gavi told donor governments that when an effective vaccine is found within its pool of experimental shots, those countries would receive doses for 20 percent of their population. Those shots could be used as each nation wished.
That means rich countries can sign deals on their own with drugmakers and then also get no-strings-attached allocations from Gavi.