Nine out of ten people in at least 70 low-income countries are at risk of being unable to vaccinate against Covid-19 next year because most of the incoming vaccines have been purchased from the West. This is despite Oxford-AstraZeneca making a commitment to provide 64% of its doses to people in developing countries.
It’s the UK’s V-day: the largest mass vaccination campaign in history begins
by Enrico Franceschini
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This was denounced by People’s Vaccine Alliance, the organization formed by Amnesty International, Frontline Aids, Global Justice Now and Oxfam. As the first people get vaccinated in the UK, the People’s Alliance warns that agreements made by governments in rich countries will leave poor ones at the mercy of the pandemic. Rich countries with just 14% of the world population have secured 53% of ready-made vaccines. Canada has bought more doses than any other population, enough to vaccinate every Canadian five times. “Nobody should be prevented from getting a life-saving vaccine because of the country they live in or the amount of money they have in their pockets,” he said. Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s head of health policy, reports the Guardian – But unless something radically changes, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19 in the years to come. “
Covid, that vaccine that will not only reach rich countries
of Meir Ouziel
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The supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, approved in the UK last week, will almost all go to rich countries: 96% of the doses, in fact, were purchased from the West. The Moderna vaccine, with a 95% efficacy, will also go exclusively to rich countries. The prices of both vaccines are high and access for low-income countries will be complicated by the ultra-low temperatures at which they must be stored, continues People’s Vaccine.
The group of NGOs used the data collected by the analysis and scientific information company Airfinity to analyze the agreements concluded between the countries and the eight main candidate vaccines. As a result, 67 low- and middle-income countries will be left behind. Five of the 67 – Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ukraine – reported nearly 1.5 million cases among them.
The Pfizer vaccine is already flying over the US skies: the race for distribution has begun
by our correspondent Federico Rampini
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The People’s Vaccine calls on all pharmaceutical companies working on vaccines to openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization pool, so that billions more doses can be produced and that safe and effective vaccines can be available to all those who need it.
The Alliance also calls on governments to do everything in their power to ensure that vaccines become a global public good, free and fairly distributed as needed. A first step would be to support South Africa and India’s proposal to the World Trade Organization Council this week to give up intellectual property rights for vaccines, tests and treatments, until all are protected.
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