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Frontline fitness workers, such as those testing a man in Jakarta, Indonesia, for coronavirus infection are reportedly among the first to be immunized with a COVID-19 vaccine as a component of a new World Health Organization plan.
Science’s COVID-19 reports are supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that countries representing nearly two-thirds of the world’s population have joined its plan to purchase and distribute COVID-19 vaccines equally worldwide, and also revealed the mechanism through which it plans to allocate the vaccine as it progresses. is available, with the aim of “finishing the acute phase of the pandemic until the end of 2021”.
“It’s a great fortune that it enrolls the equivalent of 64% of the world’s population,” Alexandra Phelan, a Georgetown University attorney specializing in global fitness policy, wrote in an email. “However, this does not reflect the profoundly uneven force dynamics on global fitness and vaccine production functions that would still possibly pose equitable vaccine inquiries. ” observers noted.
With nearly a million deaths reported worldwide from COVID-19, and the Northern Hemisphere reaching the first winter of the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 still has the global in its hands. WHO has prompted countries to signal a plan that will buy a vaccine in gigantic quantities and distribute it fairly. But it has had two main problems: how to get high-income countries to join; how to stock the first vaccines for its own populations; and how to distribute the vaccine equitably once it is available.
“To date, 64 higher-income countries, adding up to 29 economies operating under the Team Europe call, have made legally binding commitments to announce the COVAX facility,” seth Berkley, director of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, said at the press conference. Another 38 countries are expected to give the signal soon, he said. These countries will have access to COVAX vaccines and pay their own doses. Low-income countries that have signed up for COVAX will be bought doses of the vaccine; there are 92 such signs.
The list of high-income countries that have joined includes Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Peru. But “the fact that America isn’t at all concerned about this verbal exchange, as far as I know, is incredibly painful,” he says. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health. When asked about China’s absence, Berkley said the purpose of painting with every country in the world. “I can assure you that we have had verbal exchanges and will continue to have verbal exchanges with all countries,” he said.
There are still many queries on how COVAX installation works. So far, only $700 million has been raised to pay for the vaccine in low-income countries, less than the $2 billion you’d want until the end of the year. transparent how agreements that many countries have already concluded directly with vaccine brands will have an effect on WHO plans. “I think coVAX’s big question, and what will determine whether COVAX can realize its vision is what national agreements mean across rich countries that they may not want as much COVAX and therefore possibly wouldn’t provide enough investment for countries that don’t self-finance,” says Alex Harris of wellcome Trust.
In an ideal world, there would be no such bilateral agreement,” says WHO’s Mari-ngela Simo, “but that’s not how it works. “And negotiations on many of these agreements were already underway when COVAX was launched, he said. As a result, such transactions “constitute a danger” to the plan.
WHO’s “fair allocation mechanism” proposes to distribute the vaccine in two phases. In the first, all countries would get a vaccine according to their population; First, the vaccine is sufficient to immunize 3% of its population, and the first doses go to frontline social and physical care workers; a new vaccine will then be given to cover 20% of the country’s population. use these doses to immunize those most threatened by COVID-19: the elderly and others with comorities.
At the time stage, vaccines to protect others would be delivered to countries depending on the urgency of vaccines. The framework suggests that two criteria deserve to be used with priority:
Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, criticized WHO’s technique in the first phase: the countries with the greatest desire to be in the most sensitive on the list from the start, he says, and compares the scenario to a doctor in front of an overflowing emergency room. ‘The doctor doesn’t pass out in the waiting room and says, ‘I give 3 minutes to everyone sitting in the waiting room. ‘. I’ll take care of you first. ‘” For now, he points out, sending vaccines to South Korea, New Zealand or many African countries would do little to reduce COVID-19 deaths because those countries have low case rates; he says the vaccine can be more used elsewhere.
But WHO’s Bruce Aylward says new outbreaks may appear in new locations. “Remember that we face a widespread threat (the virus) and widespread vulnerability (high-threat populations that are very sensitive). “Aylward wrote: “Therefore, opt for immediate relief from the threat as [the] first step. “
The allocation of safe vaccines to each of the countries that participated in the start could possibly have been politically necessary, Jha says. ‘I think [WHO] is probably finding a balance between seeking to protect enough others and seeking to create a sense of approval enough for others to be willing to participate. ‘Emanuel says he understands WHO’s position, “but we will have not to confuse politics with ethics. “
The WHO plan includes many caveats, the vital maxim of which is that the framework developed without knowing the characteristics of the vaccine that is going to be had for the first time. The mechanism is based on “the existing ongoing speculation of a vaccine with a broad protection and efficacy profile,” says WHO. If the first vaccine you have is much greater in protecting the young than the old, for example, another strategy may be needed. “I have 40 years of delight in public fitness and [help write the plan] is definitely the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced, “says Simo. All sorts of models and calculations have been used, but there is great uncertainty, he says, noting that the document is called a “final running version. ” Until we know more, he says, “it’s as smart as possible. “
The plan faces other risks. For example, countries can simply use export controls or other means to limit vaccine materials and deny them to COVAX, Phelan says. “We still want a global commitment to establish criteria for unacceptable behavior when distributing vaccines,” he says, “including distribution discrimination in countries. ” But there is also the option that this mechanism, corrected as global struggles to combat a pandemic, become a norm for long-term pandemics, he says. “As the Director-General [of WHO] pointed out, we want to prepare for the next pandemic now, in addition to responding to COVID. “
Kai is a correspondent for the journal Science founded in Berlin, Germany, and is the author of an e-book on blue, published in 2019.
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