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Vaccines against covid-19: can it be bought by poor countries?

2021-02-01T14:46:34.534Z


According to estimates, 50% of vaccines against covid-19 will be purchased by rich countries. Where are the poor countries?


WHO reveals 5 facts about the Covax 1:13 vaccine initiative

(CNN Spanish) -

Some countries have already started their coronavirus vaccination days.

Rich countries are estimated to get 50% of the covid-19 vaccines produced by the end of next year.

Where are the developing countries left?

Doctor Huerta analyzes it in this episode.

You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform, or read the transcript below.

Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your daily dose of information on the new coronavirus.

Information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.

  • Read:

    Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have already been notified about the allocations of vaccines against covid-19 by COVAX

Already with a licensed vaccine and another on the way, the United States and the United Kingdom are some of the countries that have already formally begun their national vaccination campaigns against covid-19 and have announced that they have millions of doses of the vaccines insured. .

Given this situation, today we will see what possibilities poor countries have of being able to obtain vaccines against covid-19.

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How does Covax, the initiative to deliver vaccines against covid-19 in Latin America, work?

2:51

Poor countries and vaccines against covid-19

A recent article in The New York Times makes an interesting review of the subject, and concludes that since rich countries would have more than 50% of the vaccines produced in the world by the end of 2021, those nations would have as many doses of vaccines as to to vaccinate the entire population more than once.

For example, if they received all the doses of vaccine they have announced, the European Union could vaccinate its people twice.

The United Kingdom and the United States could do it four times and Canada six times.

  • Read:

    The "mass vaccination" against covid-19 will begin in Colombia on February 20, announces Iván Duque

At the same time, if things run their course, poor countries could only vaccinate a maximum of 20 percent of their population during 2021.

The reason for this inequality is that rich countries gambled early, injecting billions of dollars into the development of vaccines, on the condition that they would be the first to obtain the vaccines, when they have passed phase 3 studies.

This is how they plan to distribute the covid-19 vaccine in America 3:13

Rich countries have greater access to the vaccine

For example, the United States provided billions of dollars to the top five vaccine pharmaceutical companies.

After which, it signed agreements to have:

  • 100 million doses of Pfizer, with an option to acquire a further 500 million,

  • 200 million doses of Moderna, with the option of acquiring 300 million more,

  • And 810 million doses of AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Sanofi combined, with the option of having 1.5 billion more doses if necessary.

The UK secured 357 million doses from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sanofi combined and 152 million from Valneva, a laboratory that is just beginning to develop its vaccine.

  • Read:

    WHO: 'Much of the world could be left behind' as rich countries try to 'skip the line' on vaccines

For its part, the European Union secured 1.3 billion doses of Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sanofi combined, in addition to the German company CureVac with an option to have 660 million more doses.

There is no doubt that this enormous economic power made it easier for the scientific power that they already had to crystallize in a greater number of doses for those countries.

The options of poor countries

Faced with this reality, what options do poor countries have?

Medium and low-income countries have two options:

  • Negotiate directly with big pharmaceutical companies

  • Participate in the COVAX program, an initiative sponsored by the World Health Organization and two non-profit organizations funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

COVAX is a kind of vaccine repository, in which poor countries must register and deposit a certain amount of money for their participation.

That money is transferred by COVAX to the pharmaceutical companies, which will provide the vaccines when they are fully developed.

Despite having trouble collecting the money, COVAX plans to have 1 billion doses for 92 countries.

COVAX: an option for developing countries

While it is true, that figure seems numerous, that amount would only be enough to vaccinate, at most, 20 percent of the population of those countries during 2021.

Because some middle and high income countries also participate in COVAX, this organization has separate 1 billion doses for those countries, and some voices have been raised for those countries to donate the doses that correspond to poor countries.

In this regard, Dr. Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the director of the WHO, said that it would be unfair for rich countries to have so many vaccines to protect all their inhabitants, while poor countries do not have vaccines even to vaccinate their own. high-risk populations.

In summary, there is no doubt that in addition to the social inequalities that allow certain groups of people to suffer more illness and death, the pandemic is revealing the enormous social inequality in the possibility of obtaining the desired vaccines.

Do you have questions about the coronavirus?

Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes.

You can find me at @DrHuerta.

You see that we answer them.

If you think this podcast is helpful, help others find it by rating and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app.

We will be back tomorrow so be sure to subscribe to get the latest episode on your account.

And for the most up-to-date information, you can always head over to CNNEspanol.com.

Thanks for your attention.

coronaviruscovid-19Coronavirus vaccine

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-02-01

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