Covax failing to deliver vaccines
Poorer countries haven’t received necessary supply of doses
LONDON — When global health officials created Covax, a U.N.-backed effort to share coronavirus vaccines, it was supposed to guarantee the world’s most vulnerable people could get doses without being at the mercy of unreliable donations.
It hasn’t worked out that way. In late June, Covax sent more than 530,000 doses to Britain — more than double the amount sent that month to Africa, where fewer than 2% of the population is immunized.
While poor countries joined Covax to receive donated doses, higher-income countries were enticed to join as an insurance policy in case their private vaccine deals fell through. Most rich countries have declined to buy Covax doses after acquiring enough shots through private deals. But some, including the U.K. and Canada, tapped into the initiative’s meager supply even after reserving most of the world’s coronavirus vaccines.
The result is that poorer countries have landed in exactly the predicament Covax was intended to avoid: depending on the whims and politics of rich countries for donations.
“If we had tried to withhold vaccines from parts of the world, could we have made it any worse than it is today?” asked Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior advisor at the World Health Organization, during a public session on vaccine equity.
The U.S. never got any doses through Covax, although Saudi Arabia, Australia and New Zealand did. Canada got so much criticism for taking Covax shipments that it said it would not request more. In the meantime, Venezuela has yet to receive any of its Covax doses. Haiti has received less than half of its share, Syria about a 10th.
British officials confirmed the U.K. received about 539,000 Covax vaccines in late June and that it has options to buy another 27 million.
However, Brook Baker, a Northeastern University specialist in access to medicines, said it was unconscionable that rich countries would dip into Covax supplies at a time when its biggest supplier, the Serum Institute of India, stopped exporting vaccines to deal with a surge of cases on the subcontinent. That left nearly 60 countries with few options. So far, the initiative has delivered less than 10% of the doses it promised.
Covax is run by the World Health Organization, the vaccines alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
With the exception of China, donations are coming in tiny fractions of what’s been pledged, an Associated Press tally of vaccines promised and delivered has found. Dr. Christian Happi, of Nigeria’s Redeemer’s University, said donations from rich countries are completely unreliable, as they have already hoarded the global supply and are now moving on to inoculating children and planning booster shots.
“We cannot just wait for them to come up with a solution,” he said.
IRAN LOCKDOWN SET
Iran says it will impose a six-day-long “general lockdown” in cities across the country after being hit by what it describes as its fifth wave of the covid-19 pandemic, state media reported Saturday.
The lockdown includes all bazaars, markets and public offices, as well as movie theaters, gyms and restaurants in all Iranian cities.
The lockdown will begin Monday and last through Saturday.
The national coronavirus task force, which issued the decision, also ordered a travel ban between all Iranian cities from today to Friday.
Also Saturday, Iran reported 466 deaths and 29,700 new cases of coronavirus patients in a single day. That brought the total pandemic death toll to 97,208, and total confirmed cases to 4,389,085.
Iran is struggling to vaccinate its people against the pandemic. Only 3.8 million of its more than 80 million people have received both doses.
Many have been vaccinated with Iran’s locally produced shots, or the Chinese state-backed Sinopharm vaccine that may be less effective than other inoculations.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, in January banned American or British vaccines entering the country, calling them “forbidden.”
AUSTRALIA POLICIES TIGHTEN
In Australia, authorities are tightening restrictions, increasing fines and ramping up policing in Sydney in a bid to contain the delta outbreak in Australia’s most populous city, after cases surged to a record on Saturday.
New South Wales state reported 466 new cases in the local community Saturday, up 19% from the previous record the day before. The vast majority of infections were in Sydney, which is failing to contain the outbreak despite entering its eighth week of lockdown against the delta strain.
“This is the most concerning day of this outbreak so far,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Saturday. Four more people have died, she said. Later Saturday, Deputy Premier John Barilaro said in a tweet that all of the state would enter a weeklong lockdown from 5 p.m.
From Monday, there will be a “visible and increased police presence” in areas hardest-hit by the outbreak, including members of the riot squad, and an extra 500 soldiers to enforce compliance on top of the 300 already on the ground, Berejiklian said. Fines will be ramped up, including $3,685 for quarantine breaches and $2,210 for exercising outside of guidelines.
“The increased fines and heightened police presence are about ensuring people who are doing the wrong thing are caught and punished appropriately,” Berejiklian said in a separate statement.
The result is that poorer countries have landed in exactly the predicament Covax was intended to avoid: depending on the whims and politics of rich countries for donations.