"You have to learn from history, but it would seem that this is not the case," lamented Thursday, to AFP, Soumya Swaminathan, one of the main people responsible for the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in within the WHO, on vaccine inequality around the world.
She reacted to a sad observation: to date, poor countries have administered only 0.3% of all doses of anti-Covid vaccines used in the world, for a population which nevertheless represents 10% of that of the world. .
To read also Vaccines and poor countries: investigation of Covax and the dream "a little naive" of the WHO
Has the call of this specialist been heard, when a strong circulation of the virus could give rise to more contagious, resistant or even fatal variants?
For two days, the Covax system, which brings together the initiatives of rich countries and laboratories to provide the need for vaccines in the world, has received new pledges.
This global mechanism for providing vaccines to poor countries, which had pledged to vaccinate 20% of the population of all participating countries by the end of the year, suffered some setbacks, in particular due to the vaccines collected by India, in order to fight against a disastrous epidemic wave.
As a result, in June, he should miss nearly 190 million doses.
Update on these new promises of more than beneficial donations.
IMF proposes $ 50 billion plan
During the world health summit organized Thursday and Friday in Rome, as part of the G20, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) unveiled a major plan to deal with the pandemic. This plan, whose funding is estimated at $ 50 billion, has a consequent objective: to immunize at least 40% of the world population by the end of the year and at least 60% of it by the end of the year. end of 2022. The stakes are high, while at the end of April, there were only 2% of the population of Africa vaccinated, against 40% of the American and 20% of the European one (with at least one dose received) .
According to the IMF, only additional subsidies granted to the Covax device, in particular more donations of doses and the organization of free cross-border flows, allowing their distribution, will make it possible to defeat the epidemic.
Chinese President Xi Jinping also pledged $ 3 billion in aid over the next three years to support the fight against the pandemic and economic recovery.
Vaccines at cost price for Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson
Another commitment, this time from private laboratories, also invited to this summit: the three producers of vaccines against Covid-19, Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, announced during the same G20 their commitment to provide cost, or reduced, 3.5 billion doses to the poorest countries by 2022. As of this year, 1.3 billion doses should be delivered.
In detail, Pfizer will supply two billion doses, Moderna "up to" 995 million and Johnson & Johnson "up to 500 million".
There are two possible options: these doses will be available at cost for low-income countries and at reduced prices for middle-income countries.
Two days earlier, the main organizations of the pharmaceutical industry had urged to "intensify a responsible sharing of the doses" of vaccines against the Covid-19 in the world.
According to them, only 11 billion doses of vaccine could be produced by the end of the year, a number sufficient to "immunize the world's adult population".
100 million doses promised to Covax by the European Union
In the process, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, by estimating that "Everyone, everywhere" must have access to vaccines, announced that the European Union (EU) would provide 100 million doses of vaccine against the Covid-19 to "low and middle income countries before the end of 2021".
For their part, the United States have already announced their intention to give Covax 80 million doses, including 60 million AstraZeneca.
If it does not speak of doses strictly speaking, Italy, which hosted this virtual summit, has also committed to release 300 million additional euros to support the most vulnerable countries in their vaccination campaigns.
France and Germany, main contributors
The Hexagon, which had already announced a donation of 500,000 doses by the end of June, is one of the most generous European countries.
Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday that France would give, by the end of 2021, "at least 30 million doses of different vaccines" to the Covax program, a third of the number promised by the European Union.
In a video he commented: "We do not have the right to store vaccines in some countries while others are lacking".
"It is shocking that we sometimes start to vaccinate children where we have not yet started to vaccinate the oldest, the most vulnerable in other countries," also lamented the French president.
Same initiative in Germany.
The country has announced that it will give by the end of 2021 "up to 30 million doses" to the Covax program.
"Provided, of course, that the vaccines we have ordered actually arrive," Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed.
Sweden had already announced its intention to give 1 million doses of the vaccine to Covax.
No consensus on the lifting of patents
The G20 countries have also worked on a final declaration, known as the “Rome Declaration”, which should, among other commitments, hammer home that of the richest countries to promote the production of vaccines in Africa through technology transfer.
But this text should not however support the controversial idea of a temporary suspension of the patents of pharmaceutical companies for vaccines, such as it is currently encouraged by the United States but faces skepticism of the European Union.
This version should only advocate for "voluntary license sharing" and the removal of barriers to exports.
Read also Covid-19: the lifting of patents on vaccines, miracle solution or mirage?
In the meantime, the boss of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has asked all countries to give up immunizing children and adolescents, in order to make the doses dedicated to them available to Covax, while it is recognized that minors are less prone to developing severe forms of Covid-19.