LONDON (AP) – As many as 60 countries, including some of the world’s poorest, could get stuck on the first shots of their coronavirus vaccinations as nearly all deliveries through the global program designed to help them are blocked until the end of June .
COVAX, the global initiative to deliver vaccines to countries that lack the power to negotiate scarce supplies themselves, shipped more than 25,000 doses to low-income countries over the past week, just twice a day. Deliveries have been virtually halted since Monday.
According to data collected daily by UNICEF for the past two weeksa total of less than 2 million doses of COVAX were released for shipment to 92 countries in the developing world – the same amount injected in Britain alone.
On Friday, the head of the World Health Organization criticized the “shocking imbalance” in the global vaccination against COVID-19. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said that while one in four people in rich countries had received a vaccine, only one in 500 people in poorer countries had received a dose.
The vaccine shortage stems largely from India’s decision stop exporting vaccines from the Serum Institute plant, which produces the vast majority of the AstraZeneca doses COVAX counted on to supply about a third of the world’s population at a time when coronavirus is on the rise worldwide.
COVAX will only ship vaccines approved by the WHO, and countries are becoming increasingly impatient. Stocks are declining in some of the first countries to receive COVAX shipments, and the expected delivery of second doses in the currently recommended 12-week period is questionable. In a statement, the vaccine alliance known as GAVI told The Associated Press that 60 countries are affected by the delays.
In vaccination tents set up at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, many of those arriving for their first shots were uncomfortable about when the second would arrive.
“I’m concerned that if I don’t get the second dose, my immune system will be weak and I might die,” said Oscar Odinga, an official.
Internal WHO documents obtained by the AP show that uncertainty about supplies “is causing some countries to lose confidence in the COVAX (effort).” This prompts WHO to consider accelerating the approval of vaccines from China and Russia, which have not been approved by any regulatory body in Europe or North America.
WHO documents show that the UN agency is facing questions from COVAX participants about allotment gardens in addition to “uncertainty as to whether all those vaccinated in Round 1 are guaranteed a second dose.”
The WHO declined to comment specifically on the issues raised in the internal material, but has previously said countries are “very eager” to get vaccines as soon as possible, and insisted that they have not heard any complaints about the process.
Concerns about the association between AstraZeneca injection and rare blood clots has also “created nervousness about both safety and efficacy,” noted the WHO. One of the proposed solutions is a decision to “speed up the assessment of additional products” from China and Russia.
The WHO said last month it would be possible to give the Chinese vaccines the green light by the end of April.
Some experts have noted that Sinopharm and Sinovac, two Chinese-made vaccines, have no published data, and people have been reported to require a third dose to be protected.
“If there is anything we miss by not having thoroughly evaluated the risks of serious side effects from these vaccines, it would undermine trust in all the good products we know are safe,” said Dora Curry, director of health equality and health equality. rights with CARE International.
Other experts feared delays could erode trust in governments that were particularly efficient in their vaccination programs and were counting on second doses soon.
“In the absence of high vaccination coverage worldwide, we run the risk of letting the pandemic continue for several more years,” said Lavanya Vasudevan, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute. “Every day the virus is in circulation is an opportunity to mutate into a more deadly variety.”
Earlier this month, the WHO called on wealthy countries to urgently share 10 million doses to meet the UN target to initiate COVID-19 vaccinations in every country within the first 100 days of the year. So far, countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to COVAX. But there are simply no doses to buy, and no country has agreed to immediately share what it has.
Bilateral dose donations usually go along political lines, rather than countries with the most infections, which are nowhere near enough to compensate for the goals set by COVAX. Think global health, a data site managed by the Council on Foreign Relations, identified 19 countries that donated a total of 27.5 million doses to 102 countries as of Thursday.
“You can make a strong argument that we are better off making donations in times of crisis and controlling the pandemic than vaccinating low-risk groups at home,” said Thomas Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. . Bollyky said COVAX was both a big disappointment and the only option available to most people in the world.
According to the International Rescue Committee, COVID-19 cases and deaths skyrocketed last month in many crisis-affected countries: by 322% in Kenya, 379% in Yemen and 529% in northeastern Syria.
On Thursday, the agencies behind COVAX – WHO, vaccine alliance GAVI and CEPI, a coalition for epidemic preparedness – celebrated their delivery of 38 million life-saving vaccines to more than 100 countries.
Brook Baker, a vaccine expert at Northeastern University, said the rave message was misplaced.
“Celebrating doses sufficient for just 19 million people, or 0.25% of the world’s population, is tone deaf,” he said, adding that it was time for WHO and partners to be fairer to countries.
“WHO and GAVI have repeatedly over-promised and underdelivered, so why should we believe they can suddenly ramp up production and deliveries within a few months?” he said.
Outside the vaccination tents in Nairobi, Dr. Duncan Nyukuri, an infectious disease doctor, tried to reassure people on Thursday who received their first dose.
“If you get the first dose and don’t get the second dose, it doesn’t mean your body will be weaker or that you are at an increased risk of getting an infection,” he said. “It means that your body has developed some immunity against the coronavirus infection. But this immunity is not as good as someone who has been given both doses. “
Hinnant reported from Paris. Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed.
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