How Will Covax Deliver Covid-19 Vaccines to Poorer Countries? -- Update
February 19 2021 - 1:56PM
Dow Jones News
By Gabriele Steinhauser
Developing countries are falling dangerously behind in the
global race to end the coronavirus pandemic through vaccinations.
The Covax facility aims to get Covid-19 shots to at least 20% of
the populations of the world's poorest nations.
What is Covax?
Covax is the world's main effort for getting Covid-19 vaccines
to poor countries. It was started last year by the World Health
Organization and two groups that have been working on getting
vaccines to developing countries -- Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and
the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations -- when it
became clear that many nations would struggle to access the shots.
As rich countries have done, Covax made deals with vaccine
manufacturers to buy doses before they had passed clinical trials
and been approved by drug regulators. The money to buy the vaccines
has been donated mostly by Western governments and charitable
groups, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Who is participating in the WHO program?
Covax aims to provide free Covid-19 vaccines to at least 20% of
the populations of the world's 92 poorest countries by the end of
2021. Just over 50 other nations, including Canada and
upper-middle-income nations such as South Africa and Mexico, have
also ordered vaccines through Covax, but have to pay for the doses
themselves.
Which vaccines have been secured?
Covax has made deals with most of the big manufacturers,
including Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc. But
during the first half of 2021, the majority of planned deliveries
from the facility are for the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca PLC
and Oxford University. For the whole year, the AstraZeneca vaccine
is forecast to make up about one-third of Covax supplies, assuming
that the shots by J&J and Novavax and other manufacturers get
authorized as expected.
How many Covid vaccines will be donated?
Covax says it has negotiated deals for about 2.27 billion doses
of vaccines this year, although many are for shots that have yet to
be authorized or are still in clinical trials. All vaccines, except
the J&J one, require two doses and some of them will go to the
self-financing countries. Covax has also called on rich countries,
which have bought enough vaccines to cover their populations
multiple times over this year, to donate any extra doses. So far,
the U.K. and Canada have said they would share surplus doses, but
without giving details of when they would do so. Norway has said it
would start sharing vaccines with developing countries at the same
time as it starts immunizing its own people, while France has
called on European countries to start giving about 5% of their
vaccines to African nations now.
How will vaccines be shared with poorer countries?
Covax says most countries will get a first shipment of doses in
March, with some small deliveries expected in late February.
Supplies during the first half of the year are extremely
constrained. Covax expects 336 million doses of the AstraZeneca
vaccine and 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer shot. That will be
enough to cover just over 3% of the population of the participating
countries. Covax's purchase agreements with manufacturers are tied
to a vaccine getting an emergency-use listing from the WHO, which
in turn is used by regulators in many developing countries to
approve the shots locally.
How is the U.S. supporting the Covax effort?
Under former President Donald Trump, the U.S. stood out among
major Western governments for not contributing to Covax. President
Biden has announced a $4 billion contribution to the facility.
Washington will make an initial donation of $2 billion and then
release an additional $2 billion throughout 2021 and 2022.
Can this program help put an end to the global health
crisis?
Covax's backers say the donated shots should help to end the
acute phase of the pandemic by protecting a society's most
vulnerable members from getting seriously ill with Covid-19 and
overwhelming hospitals. But the supplies secured so far will fall
far short of helping benefiting countries to achieve herd immunity,
so the virus is likely to continue circulating among the people who
haven't been vaccinated. That, some health experts warn, leaves
opportunities for the virus to develop mutations that could allow
it to evade the immune response triggered by the current crop of
Covid-19 vaccines.
Write to Gabriele Steinhauser at
gabriele.steinhauser@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 19, 2021 13:41 ET (18:41 GMT)
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