Uttam Maharjan

It has been a year since the coronavirus emerged in the world in late December 2019. Still, there is no sign of the viral disease abating despite preventive and curative measures taken across the world like social distancing, washing hands with soap and water, using sanitiser, wearing masks and quarantine and isolation arrangements. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been trying its best to tackle the global pandemic in collaboration with various countries, other international organisations, regional partners and the medical fraternity.
In recent times, the WHO's attention has been directed to COVID-19 vaccines. The UN organisation has taken the initiative, in collaboration with GAVI (an alliance of governments, drugmakers, charities and international organisations that make arrangements for global vaccine campaigns) and CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), in ensuring fair and equitable distribution of COVID vaccines among as many as 92 low- and middle-income countries like Nepal. Such vaccines will be distributed under the Fair Allocation Framework developed by a team of ethicists, scientists and health experts. It may be noted that the Framework is a key component of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.
The ACT Accelerator is global collaboration designed to speed up tests, treatments and vaccinations with the goal of reaching such vaccines, once rolled out, to all countries in proportion to the size of their populations. The roll-out of vaccines will be carried on in two phases. In the first phase, frontline health workers, elders and high-risk groups like those with underlying medical conditions will be prioritized. In the second phase, other groups of populations will get the vaccines. The WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) will recommend the groups of populations within a country for vaccinations, ensuring that the vaccines reach those who need them the most.

Vaccine roll-out
COVAX aims at distributing vaccines among 20 per cent of populations of poor countries, not least in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For this, it intends to arrange for two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021. Every country is required to develop a national deployment and introduction plan for vaccines. For preparation, countries can use VIRAT (vaccine introduction readiness assessment tool) to ascertain the phases of readiness required and to be completed. COVID-19 has been playing havoc with the world economy. Vaccines will curb the disease and prevent deaths. It is expected that the roll-out of vaccines will prevent a loss of 375 billion US dollars every month and help revive the economy.
COVAX has already collected 2.1 billion US dollars. It requires an additional 4.9 billion US dollars for the provision of vaccines for 20 per cent of the world population. COVAX has made non-binding supply agreements with drugmakers like AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sanofi for the procurement of 400 million doses. It has also made other options open for the procurement of vaccines from other companies. With an eye to reducing costs, COVAX is considering procuring cheap vaccines. The financial cost has been based on 5.20 US dollars per dose. Further, COVAX is eyeing vaccines like those developed by Astra-Zeneca that do not need ultra-cold temperatures for storage. This is because most poor countries lack such cold storage chains.
Rich countries have booked vaccines in large quantities. Some of them have initiated the vaccination campaign. They are mulling giving excess vaccines to poor countries. But it is not clear whether poor countries will receive such vaccines under the COVAX facility or not. Britain and European Union countries are main contributors to COVAX, while the USA and China have not made any financial commitments to it. Lack of required funding may adversely affect COVAX. If vaccine prices zoom more than estimated, supply of vaccines from companies is delayed or adequate funds cannot be collected, there may be a setback for COVAX.
The vaccines being developed by companies (AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sanofi) which COVAX intends to receive are in the trial phase. If the trials are not completed soon, regulatory approval may not be obtained till the second half of 2021, hampering the timely distribution of vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine has been approved for emergency use in several countries. The Moderna vaccine has also been approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration. However, COVAX has not made any supply deals with Pfizer and Moderna.

Global cooperation
Rich countries like the USA and China should support COVAX. Rich countries can vaccinate their people but poor countries are finding it heavy going to procure adequate vaccines for their populations. COVID-19 has assumed global proportions. Curbing the disease is a must to bring the world economy back on track. For this, it should be controlled not only in rich countries but also in poor countries. In this age of globalisation marked by the increased movement of people from one part of the world to another 24 hours a day, only the systemic control of the disease will pay for the world. If even the virus has been contained in rich countries but not in poor countries, the virus will, for sure, spread to rich countries again due to the global mobility of people.
It is a no-brainer that global cooperation is required to control Covid-19. And rich countries, by dint of having adequate resources, skills and technology, can make a pivotal role in curbing the disease. They should also help cash-strapped countries in their endeavours to curb the disease. For this, they should contribute adequately to COVAX in its sacrosanct mission of helping poor countries in shuffling out of the impact of the disease, which will benefit them as well.

(Former banker, Maharjan has been regularly writing on contemporary issues for this daily since 2000. uttam.maharjan1964@gmail.com)