Dozens of countries are unable to administer the second dose of anti-Covid vaccines, for lack of sufficient doses, which risks permanently destabilizing vaccine campaigns, the WHO warned on Friday, June 18.
Read also: Weather, variants, vaccines: questions that remain unanswered regarding Covid-19
"
We have a huge number of countries which had to suspend their vaccination campaign for the second dose - 30 or 40 countries - which could have received second doses of AstraZeneca for example and which are not in a position to do so
", said Dr Bruce Aylward, responsible at the WHO for overseeing the Covax international distribution system.
"
The interval (between the two injections) is now longer than what we would like
", he warned, explaining that Covax was in direct negotiations with AstraZeneca but also the Serum Institute of India, which is to manufacture most of the doses for covax, but the production of which is prohibited for export in the face of urgent needs in India itself.
Too long an interval between two doses can facilitate the emergence of more dangerous or contagious variants.
According to Bruce Aylward, these countries are particularly found in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in Latin America, the Middle East and South Asia, in particular India's neighbors such as Nepal or Sri Lanka, which must face up to a severe wave of infections.
Doses of G7 available later
For now, Covax partners are trying to access a maximum of doses which are crucial for the period from June to September. He noted that the United States had promised 80 million doses for the period June-July, but the bulk of the billion doses promised by the G7 will not be available until later in the year and especially in 2022. "
The donations are a short-term solution to a very imperfect market where only countries which have the means or which produce vaccines have access to them,
”he recalled.
Dr Aylward wished to stress the deleterious effect of these blows on the confidence of the populations in the vaccination.
"
When we force countries with less robust systems to interrupt, reorganize, redirect their program
" we make "the mobilization of the population very difficult," said Dr Aylward.
"
We often hear it from politicians who are keen to mobilize their population but who fear doing so prematurely because the doses have not been delivered,
" he insisted.
As of June 17, the Covax system had delivered just 88 million doses to 131 countries, well below what was originally planned.