‘Vaccine for the world’ starts saving lives in Africa
‘Vaccination gives us hope to return to normal. To hug our friends, to go back to work, to live like we once did’
‘As an early funder to the mechanism, the UK provided more than half a billion pounds to make global access to vaccines a reality’
The first Covax vaccines were administered to government ministers and essential workers in Ivory Coast and Ghana in west Africa yesterday, formally signalling the long-awaited start of the global jabs programme against Covid-19.
The internationally funded and Un-led rollout – working to the axiom “it’s not over anywhere until it’s over everywhere” – aims to reach 20 per cent of people in 92 low and middleincome nations with more than two billion doses by the end of the year.
As the first shot of the Oxfordastrazeneca jab went into the arm of Patrick Achi, the government spokesman for Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast, at the Parc des Sports in Abidjan, he urged all the country’s 200,000 essential workers to follow his lead.
“Vaccination gives us hope to return to normal. To hug our friends, to go back to work, to live like we once did. To enjoy the human warmth we all know and miss,” he said. “We hope that today you all, and especially our fearless military, follow us in getting vaccinated with smiling faces.”
Even before Mr Achi had stopped speaking at the packed event, a long queue of health workers, teachers, police officers, soldiers and essential agricultural workers had formed to receive their jabs. The Daily Telegraph sent images of the event to Prof Sarah Gilbert, the Oxford University scientist who developed the vaccine.
She said she was “proud the vaccine was being used to protect people through Covax”, adding: “At Oxford we always planned to produce a vaccine for the world and it is amazing to see this vision being realised now. We encourage the other manufacturers to provide doses to Covax also, to increase the number of immunisations that can be given.”
It’s an important message. People close to Covax say Moderna and Pfizer continue to play hardball over pricing and terms, limiting the rollout speed.
Ghana and Ivory Coast have been racing to deliver the first Covax shots ever since supplies were flown into the region last week from the Serum Institute of India. Ghana received the first consignment last Wednesday and was expected to hold off using it until tomorrow to allow its northern neighbour to claim the first inoculation today. But local rivalry proved too much and both countries started administering the British
Swedish vaccine in the early morning. With temperatures in Abidjan high enough to stop video cameras working after just a few minutes of operation, it was no surprise that the Oxford jab was the first to be used by Covax.
It can be stored in an ordinary fridge and was designed from the outset with global distribution in mind, its not-for-profit pricing as well as its versatility making it ideal for mass distribution in low- and middleincome countries.
Dr Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is spearheading the Covax campaign together with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi) and Unicef, hailed the administration of the first Covax jab.
“Today’s launches represent major milestones in what will be the biggest and most rapid vaccination campaign in history. There is more to do, but today Covax can celebrate real progress,” he said.
Dr Berkley added that the Covax vaccine was now scheduled to arrive in more than 10 other African countries this week including Angola, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Senegal.
Dr Richard Hatchett, chief executive of Cepi, said the west African jabs marked a “seminal moment for the pandemic and, frankly, for history” and would hopefully mark the “source of a great stream of vaccine that will begin to flow around the world”.
Dr Hatchett was working for the White House during the 2008-9 H1N1 swine flu outbreak when global vaccine supplies were monopolised by a handful of wealthy nations.
That experience scarred him and he has been one of the principal architects of the Covax facility which, while largely funded by richer nations including the UK, essentially operates as a country in its own right, negotiating its own vaccine supply deals in advance.
It helps that Cepi seed-funded several of the new platforms that the Covid vaccines are now using, including the Oxford and Pfizer jabs.
“Covax supply is a combination of homegrown supply and also purchases on the open market,” he said. “Part of the narrative spinning around right now is, you know, ‘Look at all these bilateral deals – there are no doses left’. But that’s not the case… Covax has its own contracts.”
Ivory Coast, like many African countries, has so far escaped the worst of the pandemic, recording just 32,754 cases and 192 deaths from a population of 26 million over the last year.
Nevertheless, the country locked down hard last spring to avoid the first wave of the virus and the financial impact has been severe.
There was some unease among Covax representatives that ministers rather than health workers would be vaccinated first.
But hesitancy among parts of the population is high and officials reckon it is best for politicians to be seen to lead by example.
But Ivory Coast, like most African countries, is no stranger to infectious disease or the life-saving power of
vaccination. Cholera, measles, yellow fever, tuberculosis and polio have all been driven low or eradicated through inoculation in recent years and vaccines are being marshalled as a crucial line of defence against Ebola, which has broken out again in neighbouring Guinea.
Diplomat Cathy Bassa, based at the British Embassy in Abidjan, highlighted the UK’S role in Covax – it was one of the first contributors and is the third largest funder after the US and Germany.
“The UK has played a vital role in its support to Covax to make this all happen today. As an early funder to the mechanism, the UK provided more than half a billion pounds to make global access to vaccines a reality. This gave Covax the purchase power it needed to allow it early access to internationally approved vaccines.
“I can quite honestly say that this work to support Covax, achieve global access to vaccines and bring our partners behind us is Global Britain at its very best.”