Health is more important than money, just decisions need to be made
SOME things are bigger than money, and one of them is health.
Decisions that are taken on the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines – who gets it first, and at what cost to whom – are poised to have a greater impact on health and wealth in the global south than any other single event since the colonial era.
Should countries in the south be included when the first wave of vaccines are ready for distribution (early next year, scientists hope) equitable access will create an even runway for global economic recovery.
Should most southern nations be excluded, or struggle to develop delivery systems to distribute the vaccine, it will pave the way for northern economies to take off again, strengthening their positions of dominance.
As Archbishop Tutu said in 2007, when pharmaceutical company Novartis sought to assert what it regarded as its patent rights over a cancer treatment drug Gleevec in India: “People, not profits, must be at the centre of patent laws for medicines.”
There are three Covid-19 vaccines that have been rapidly developed and are undergoing final clinical tests.
Billions of doses of these vaccines have been produced, or are being produced, in the hope that they’ll receive final approvals for distribution.
So, who should get them? This is where morality and economics collide: Vaccine development costs a fortune.
Those countries with the deepest pockets invested heaviest in their development, effectively investing in massive pre-payments against the promise to buy most available doses, first.
There are also logistical challenges. For example, the cold temperatures at which one of the three candidate vaccines must be stored, and its short shelf-life, renders it largely unsuitable to Africa, which is eyeing various options to acquire vaccines, including through bilateral agreements with producer countries.
Most countries on the continent have signed into the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (Covax) agreement, with its goal of acquiring two billion doses of vaccine for distribution as they become available.
The poorest nations will get their fair share of these vaccines without having to pay.
Professor Martin Rupiya of The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes recently wrote that Covax appears the most promising route for Africa.
The bottom line is that the overwhelming majority of Africans are going to have to wait for the vaccination, for at least another year.
The world is in unchartered territory.
Recent years have seen a spike in deadly viruses ascribed by many as consequence of human “development” and/or misadventure that has led to inter-species contamination.
While the outbreaks of Ebola and Sars proved relatively easy to isolate and control, that’s no guarantee that the next one doesn’t make Covid seem like a small problem.
As we plan the distribution of this vaccine, we must be conscious of our duty to learn from the experience, develop and prepare better for the next episode.
Those who lead us, the decisionmakers, must have the courage to make just, sustainable, and compassionate decisions.
PIYUSHI KOTECHA
| CEO Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation