Faster than the speed of light. That concept brings to mind the allegorical “Operation Warp Speed”, with which the United States wants to procure 300 million vaccines and treatments sufficient to face COVID-19 immune to 2021, but which could leave early access to treatments and vaccines to other countries.
“I find it very worrying that the actions that the United States is taking may serve to monopolize vaccines and medicines against COVID-19,” Professor Lawrence Gostin, director of the Institute of Global Health at the Georgetown Law School, said in an interview with Efe. .
As the Donald Trump administration denies multilateralism and after making its intention to leave the World Health Organization (WHO) official, the US government is spending billions of dollars procuring potential pandemic vaccines and treatments.
The problem, experts agree, is that Trump does not seem to take into account the global dimension of the fight against the pandemic and acts with the intention of securing the entire initial stock of possible cures.
In March, he tried to persuade the German company CureVac to transfer its investigation of a possible COVID-19 vaccine to the United States, something that ultimately did not prosper and ended with the hasty departure of its then CEO, the American Daniel Menichella, and with the affirmation of the German Government that everything related to the pandemic is a matter of “national security”.
Last month, the White House ordered the purchase of virtually all of the production until September of the redemsivir treatment, from the American company Gilead, one of two drugs that have proven useful against COVID-19.
Thomas Senderovitz, head of the Danish Medicines Agency, said last week on his country’s public television that the step taken by the US to hoard redemsivir is bad news for Europe and for a world in the midst of a global crisis .
“I have not seen something like this before. A company that decides to sell all of its inventory to one country. It is very strange and inappropriate, “he said.
Operation Warp Speed this week awarded its biggest contract: $ 1.6 billion to Novavax, an almost unknown Maryland pharmacist who is developing a possible COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year.
The disbursement involves a commitment to deliver one hundred million doses of this new vaccine, a very high number for new production, even for a multinational, and which could serve to vaccinate 50 million people.
Novavax joins a dozen other candidates to get a vaccine against COVID-19, among which are the promising projects of Johnson & Johnson (financed with 456 million federal money), Moderna (500 million) and AstraZeneca (1,200 million of dollars).
“There are many reasons to think that the Trump Administration will not equitably share vaccines and essential medicines to combat the pandemic. It has operated according to its America Primero platform and it seems clear that it will want to ensure the majority of world production. This power to hoard will be greater if the US is the first to get the vaccine, “says Gostin.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the country’s leading epidemiologist, believes that the United States should have access to about 200,000 doses by 2021 to immunize its population against SARS-CoV-2, equivalent to 40% of the Global production of the seasonal flu vaccine much cheaper and easier to produce.
This suggests that the pharmaceutical companies that have received aid in exchange for commitments from Washington, including the giant AstraZeneca, will be pressured to put all their productive capacity at the service of the United States.
Actions like buying from Gilead send a very damaging message about selfishness and against the spirit of global solidarity. In addition, her announcement to withdraw from the WHO shows that Trump does not care much about cooperation and equality in health, “emphasizes Professor Gostin.
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