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Covid-19: no end to the pandemic without equitable access to vaccination

2021-02-13T13:07:16.516Z


Vaccines against Covid-19 will not end the pandemic if all countries do not receive doses quickly and fairly, experts warned on Saturday. While several countries are considering the implementation of vaccine passports before the resumption of international travel, the authors of this open letter published in the journal The Lancet believe that the accumulation of vaccine doses in the richest count


Vaccines against Covid-19 will not end the pandemic if all countries do not receive doses quickly and fairly, experts warned on Saturday.

While several countries are considering the implementation of vaccine passports before the resumption of international travel, the authors of this open letter published in the journal

The Lancet

believe that the accumulation of vaccine doses in the richest countries risks prolonging the health crisis.

Read also: Vaccine race: the new secret war

Because of this “

vaccine nationalism

”, the Covax, a UN device intended to distribute anti-Covid vaccines to underprivileged countries, could face a lack of doses for several years.

"

The bare truth is that the world needs more doses of anti-Covid vaccines than any other vaccine in history to immunize enough people to achieve collective immunity

," says lead author Olivier Wouters, from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"

Unless vaccines are distributed more equitably, it could be years before the coronavirus is under control globally

."

Unprecedented investments

Poor countries face enormous challenges in obtaining the doses and administering them to their populations, from lack of money to purchase vaccines to transport and storage infrastructure (especially for RNA vaccines which must be kept at home. very low temperature).

And despite unprecedented public and private investment in vaccine development and delivery, Covax estimates it will need an additional $ 6.8 billion in 2021 to be able to deliver vaccines to 92 developing countries.

Read also: Bill Gates: prepare for the next pandemic as we prepare for a war

Based on available trade data, the authors of the open letter note that the governments of wealthy countries representing 16% of the world's population have obtained 70% of the doses - enough to vaccinate each of their citizens several times.

"

Securing large quantities of vaccines in this way is to place the general vaccination of its population above the vaccination of caregivers and those at risk in poor countries

," said another author, Mark Jit of London. School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Price control

The letter calls on manufacturers to speed up technology transfers to developing countries so that they can produce doses locally, as well as to put in place price controls for vaccines on the market, which are currently "

prohibitive

" according to the authors. .

According to them, vaccines developed by China or Russia could help improve the situation, once their approval by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Source: lefigaro

All business articles on 2021-02-13

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