The shortage of vaccines against the coronavirus is today the main concern of the governments of all the countries of the world. In a scenario in which the production of the laboratories does not cover the enormous demand, the companies do not release the patents and the most powerful nations monopolize the doses, the The European Union threatened the laboratories to close the exports of vaccines until they comply with deliveries to member countries. Germany, at the same time, warned you don’t have enough doses to stop a third wave, In the United Kingdom it was learned that the supply of vaccines will be drastically reduced from March 29 and Spain analyzes, like other countries, give a single dose to generate herd immunity. In Latin America the situation is even more sensitive: Brazil has financial problems to buy the antidote and both Paraguay and Uruguay have collapsed health systems and difficulties in accessing vaccines. The concern of the Argentine Government grows while negotiations with different laboratories continue and doses continue to be received to face the second wave of infections, which is approaching with the arrival of autumn.
At Thursday’s press conference, President Alberto Fernández wanted to warn about this international conflict. “Only 18 countries have received 88 percent of the vaccines that have been distributed so far and only 15 of them received more than 10 percent of the vaccines they purchased. This is the reality of the world in 2021: shortages, inequality and the delay in vaccines, “warned the president.
During the last weeks, in Argentina the vaccination process and the arrival of new doses accelerated. So far, 3,134,454 doses have been applied and the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, announced on Friday the arrival of 330 thousand Sputnik V. In addition, a flight with more antidotes from Russia will arrive in the next few hours and, although The exact amount is not yet known, between Tuesday and Thursday they will arrive three million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. However, at Casa Rosada there is growing concern in the face of a global context that is becoming more complex every day in relation to access to vaccines.
In an interview published this Sunday, the Russian ambassador to Argentina, Dmitry Feoktistov, assured that during the last conversation that the President had with his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, he said that “Argentina is our priority”, only that something happens to them that it happened all over the world: shortage of capacities to produce the necessary quantity. ” “Our contract with Argentina will be fulfilled, but we have breaks that we would not have wanted,” he was sincere and estimated that the delivery could be fulfilled in its entirety during this year. In addition, he recalled the existence of agreements to produce the vaccine in Argentina, which “would be of great help to improve the situation.”
Scarcity: a global problem
The case of the EU is paradigmatic regarding how central countries exert pressure to hoard vaccines. This Saturday, the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, announced that they will withhold the exports of the British company in Belgium AstraZeneca if it does not deliver the agreed doses of vaccine to Brussels, for delivering doses to countries that are not part of the EU. “We have the option of blocking planned exports, that’s the message for AstraZeneca: first you fulfill your contract with Europe and then you start supplying to other countries,” said Von Der Leyen.
At the beginning of the month, Italy implemented a measure similar to preventing the departure of a shipment of 225,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines bound for Australia. When the media asked for explanations, close to the President of the Italian Council of Ministers, Mario Draghi, they expressed that the decision “was not against Australia”, but “against the company, which has not respected what is stipulated in its contract with Italy.”
The most powerful countries in the EU, such as Germany, Likewise they still have a shortage of vaccines. Last week, German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned that “there are not enough vaccines in Europe to stop a third wave.” Fearing that the numbers will grow again, Spahn said that “when the elderly are immunized risk we will be able to talk about openings. “The chief of staff of the German Ministry of Health, Sonia Tarragona, this Sunday said that given the lack of vaccines they are evaluating” giving a single dose “because the numbers of cases” are growing in several regions and not we can know when the vaccines will be in. “
UK also suffers from shortages. In a letter made public last week, the health service warned vaccination centers across England of a “significant reduction” in supplies from March 29 that would last for a month. This country is implementing the application of a single dose to reach a greater number of immunized people in less time.
Spain analyzes to imitate this strategy and due to the lack of vaccines reported that people who already had covid will only receive one application. What’s more, They will stop the application of first doses to people of 80 years to guarantee the second to people over 90. Other countries such as Denmark, Hungary or Poland, due to the slowness of European laboratories, began to negotiate vaccines with China and Russia.
The Covax system, which was proposed as a solidarity alternative to distribute vaccines, has failed to meet the expectations of many countries that invested in it. Last week Paraguay, which is facing a health collapse, expressed its “dissatisfaction” with the late arrival of the doses. Brazil, one of the countries that is being most affected by the pandemic, has serious problems paying for the antidote. The former president, Inácio “Lula” Da Silva, asked the US president, Joe Biden, to convene a meeting of the G20 to address this issue and for the central countries to donate their surpluses. In this context, the claim for the release of patents for vaccines is gaining more force than ever, a proposal promoted by India and South Africa, which the Argentine Government emphatically supports.
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