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It has been more than a year since the coronavirus pandemic began to dominate the headlines and our lives. For so many people – here in Canada and around the world – it has been a period of unprecedented stress and pain. We are all waiting to breathe a sigh of relief once our family, friends and communities receive their vaccinations.
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It is perfectly natural for us to focus on the health of our loved ones, but we cannot forget that the virus does not respect borders. It is not enough to just focus on our local responses to the pandemic; As we are dedicated to vaccinating high-risk Canadians, we must also ensure that the rest of the world is on track to be vaccinated, and everyone has access to safe and effective tests and treatments. To fight this virus anywhere we have to defeat it everywhere.
Fighting a virus on a global scale is a daunting task, but there are very good reasons for hope. We celebrated in December when a personal health assistant in Toronto received the first COVID-19 vaccine in Canada, but now we have even more reason to celebrate, thanks to the breakthroughs in the global implementation of vaccines through the Access Fund. Global for covid-19 Vaccines (Covax).
Since February 24, tens of millions of doses have been delivered to more than 70 countries around the world, making this global vaccination campaign the largest and fastest in history. In Ghana and the Ivory Coast, health professionals and the population at high risk were among the first to receive the vaccine with doses of Covax and are being carried out similar campaigns in Nigeria, Jamaica and Albania. We are witnessing a global response and must recognize it as the important milestone that it is.
Canada joined Covax in September because we are unreservedly confident in its mission – to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to ensure their equitable distribution. The fund was created to guarantee access to a wide variety of vaccines and to put the smallest and poorest countries on an equal footing with the largest and wealthiest. Through large-scale purchases, the Covax is able to distribute doses around the world in the fairest and most efficient way possible.
Canada joined Covax in September because we are unreservedly confident in its mission: to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to ensure their equitable distribution.
Covax was designed as a truly cooperative association: it has 190 member countries, represents more than 90 percent of the world’s population and it has a purchasing power far superior to that of most countries alone. Also, when Covax was created, no one knew which vaccines would work or which vaccines would be approved first. That is why Canada asked this platform to obtain some doses for the country; our agreement with the fund complemented other contracts we already had and increased our chances of a successful local vaccination campaign, while contributing on a global scale.
Along with its own sourcing activities, Canada launched investments that will also help make vaccines, therapies and diagnostics affordable and accessible around the world. Thanks to our various advance purchase agreements, we may end up with a surplus of vaccine doses. When that can happen will be known exactly in the coming months, when the Canadian Ministry of Health completes its review of the candidates to receive the doses and as we confirm the progress of vaccination in the country.
Regardless of when it occurs, we will work closely with our international partners – including other countries, Gavi, Covax, and vaccine manufacturers – to explore all possible delivery options for those doses to those who need them. It will take time to vaccinate the population around the world. Covax has already secured more than 2 billion doses by 2021, but now we must achieve the same spirit of global cooperation to ensure this supply continues to grow and no vulnerable population is left unattended.
We cannot downplay the Covax fund, it is one of the remarkable achievements of today: for the first time the world came together to guarantee equitable and universal access to vaccines.
The good news is that we did not start from scratch. Canada has financed global health projects in developing countries for decades and will continue to do so. These investments contributed to the fight against polio, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and Ebola, and were instrumental in helping countries respond to the COVID-19 crisis with proven and adaptable public health solutions. such as bulk testing and contact tracing.
If we learned anything from this crisis, it is that we must maintain the ability to adapt to rapidly changing situations. Less than a year after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, we developed and approved safe and effective vaccines, which are now reaching those who need them most.
We cannot downplay the Covax fund, it is one of the remarkable achievements of today: for the first time the world came together to ensure equitable and universal access to vaccines.
Our global and local responses to coronavirus are inextricably linked and Covax is our best option to overcome the pandemic. When international cooperation is successful, we all win.
Karina Gould is the Minister of International Development of Canada.
Spanish translation by Ant-Translation. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2021.
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