United States Slammed the Door to the Global Access Program to the Coronavirus Vaccine | International

The Administration of Donald Trump has reported this Tuesday that it will not join the global effort to develop, manufacture and distribute to the population at greatest risk a coronavirus vaccine. The White House has justified the decision because, he points out, the “corrupt” World Health Organization (WHO) is involved in the initiative. The slam of the United Nations agency comes a few months after the United States announced the freezing of funds to the agency and initiate the formal withdrawal of this, scheduled for mid-2021, for “mismanaging and covering up” the spread of the largest pandemic in a century.

“The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure that we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said of the engagement. of the world power on the platform Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax). More than 170 countries are in talks to be part of the initiative co-led by WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations and the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (Gavi).

Covax’s goal is to discourage hoarding of a vaccine in the country that gets it first, and thus focus efforts on prioritizing high-risk people around the world once it is obtained. The United States would be betting on bilateral agreements with pharmaceutical companies instead of being part of the global initiative. But the WHO argues that both can be done at the same time. “By joining the platform, at the same time they are making bilateral agreements, they are actually betting on a greater number of vaccine candidates,” said Mariângela Simao, WHO Deputy Director for Access to Medicines and Vaccines, in mid-August. .

At first, the US government was reluctant to dissociate itself from Covax and turn its back on health diplomacy, but then the idea was installed that the United States has enough vaccine candidates in clinical trials, so it can do it alone, they said. , under anonymity, an official of the Administration and a former senior official to The Washington Post. However, as Simao remarked in his appearance on August 17, it is not yet known who the successful candidate will be.

Stephen Hahn, director of the FDA, the US drug agency, said Sunday in an interview with the Financial Times that you are willing to approve the use of a US vaccine for covid-19 before normal clinical trial process is completed. A group of WHO experts has warned that none of the the 33 experimental vaccines that are already in human trials have yet to prove their safety and efficacy. “There is a danger that political and economic pressures to rapidly introduce a COVID-19 vaccine could lead to the widespread deployment of a vaccine that is actually very ineffective. For example, that only reduces the incidence of covid-19 between 10% and 20% “, they warn.

Trump’s offensive against the WHO arises because he believes that he has acted in the interest of China and has to “be held accountable” for it. “The silence of the WHO in the face of the disappearance of researchers and doctors and the new restrictions on information on the investigation of the origins of covid-19 [por parte de China] it is deeply worrying, “he said at the peak of infections. The details of the US withdrawal from the body are still being evaluated, but considering that it will be effective on July 6 next year, it will also depend on whether or not Trump wins the November presidential elections.

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