As soon as a corona vaccine was in sight, Europe and the USA had secured billions of vaccine doses. But poorer countries should also be supplied – at least with the bare minimum.
Even poorer countries should be able to start vaccinating those who need it most against the corona virus in 2021. The international corona vaccination initiative Covax has secured a contingent of vaccines for this. This was announced by the vaccination initiative of the World Health Organization, Gavi. She coordinates Covax activities.
According to this, the 92 countries with low or middle income receive so many vaccine doses that they can cover around 20 percent of the population by the end of the year – including medical staff, social services employees and people with previous illnesses. This is financed by donor countries – 1.3 billion euros are available.
Rich countries help finance the poor
The WHO set up Covax with the aim of giving countries quick access to vaccines against COVID-19 regardless of their purchasing power. Covax belongs to 190 countries, including Germany, the other EU countries and China, but not the USA.
Covax is funding research on nine vaccine candidates, including CureVac from Germany. Successful vaccines are available to all countries. The 98 richer countries pay for their own needs and they support the 92 poorer countries. All commit themselves to a fair distribution.
New contracts with vaccine manufacturers
Among other things, the vaccination alliance Gavi confirmed new agreements with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. The companies expect their vaccines to be approved soon. The WHO organization assumes that richer countries will transfer some of the doses they have secured in bilateral agreements with vaccine manufacturers to poorer countries.
“The approval of vaccines gives us all a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The program needs an additional $ 6.8 billion in research funding, can purchase and distribution in 2021.
UN: Vaccine belongs to everyone
UN General Secretary António Guterres also spoke again about a fair vaccine distribution: In a speech in the Bundestag, he called for corona vaccines to be made “accessible and affordable” for all people worldwide. “Our challenge now is to ensure that vaccines are seen as a global public good,” he said on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.
