Search for a vaccine will only succeed if we come together globally

On a sunny Sunday in May, I would have hoped to be playing cricket. Others will be looking forward to a game of tennis, a visit to the coast – or just heading to the local garden centre. We are all wondering when we might be able to have friends and family around for that simple Sunday barbecue.

As we begin to take tentative, hopeful steps, we are starting to think about what may be possible in the next phase of this pandemic.

Meanwhile, governments are scrambling to secure deals with pharmaceutical giants that put their citizens first. But neither Britain, nor any country, can afford to be shortsighted. For as long as Covid-19 is present somewhere, it is a threat everywhere. No country can return to normality until the world brings this pandemic to an end.

A YouGov poll commissioned by Wellcome reveals a staggering 96 per cent of UK adults believe national governments should work together to ensure treatments and vaccines can be manufactured in as many countries as possible, and distributed globally to everyone who needs them.

The World Health Assembly, opening today, is the time for all nations to urgently address how to do this. Governments, industry and philanthropy must prioritise the long-term and pool their resources, to ensure everyone benefits from a vaccine. A fragmented approach will not succeed in an interconnected world. It will only prolong the current situation, leading to a rolling cycle of lockdowns, limited travel and trade, and even more strain on our healthcare system.

Even if every person in the UK was vaccinated, epidemics in other countries would have a knock-on impact on our economy. And if we do get a vaccine, we don’t know how long it might be able to protect us for.

Vaccines are international collaborations. No single country has the capacity to research, develop and manufacture a vaccine on its own.

In the UK, promising research into a Covid-19 vaccine is taking place across the country, with input and funding from multiple international sources. But even if one of the candidates were successful, we – like many countries – have limited manufacturing capacity.

To get a vaccine for the world, we must prepare to execute the largest and fastest vaccine testing and manufacturing scale-up in history. As soon as vaccines are ready, we will need to roll out billions of doses – and have the glass vials, syringes and other key ingredients ready, too.

No single country can do this alone. One manufacturer and one vaccine candidate will not be enough. We need to run clinical trials across the world to make sure the vaccines work for everyone. We need multiple vaccines, multiple manufacturers, and multiple manufacturing sites across the world, to ensure the vaccines are fairly distributed and not limited to highincome countries.

Funding for vaccines has always come from multiple international sources. The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness, which Wellcome co-founded in 2017 with Germany, Norway, Japan and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is now supported by over 30 governments. The resources go towards creating vaccines for everyone.

Producing vaccines, treatments and tests for the world is our only way out of this pandemic. Global collaboration is paramount. If governments, industry and philanthropy work in isolation, we will face horribly tense months and years ahead, with countless more lives lost and catastrophic damage to our economies.

A successful vaccine may come from anywhere. Any vaccine against Covid-19 should be considered a global public good, free at the point of delivery. Governments, industry and philanthropy must pool resources to pay for the risk, the research, manufacturing and distribution, but the vaccine should be available to everyone, regardless of where it has been developed or who has funded it. If countries start partnering with manufacturers to secure their own supplies, poorer countries will be excluded and left vulnerable. So, too, may many rich countries. And the world will have to grapple with fresh waves for years to come.

In our poll, almost nine in 10 UK adults opposed the idea that coronavirus treatments and vaccines should first be provided for those around the world who can afford to buy them.

Securing a vaccine for the world is not just a matter of altruism: it is in every country’s self-interest to bring this pandemic to an end as quickly as possible. The UK will only benefit when everyone benefits, and we should lead the way.

Sir Jeremy Farrar is a member of Sage and director of the Wellcome Trust. He was previously a professor of tropical medicine at the University of Oxford.