Against Vaccine Nationalism

The good news is that there are currently more than 200 candidate vaccines in development. With 10 in the last stage of efficacy testing, we should begin to find out which ones will be safe and effective in the next few months. This is important as historically not all vaccine candidates, even those that make it to clinical trials, have successfully made it to licensure. Therefore, it is critical to have a portfolio of vaccines of different types under development. It is also why, together with our partners—the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the WHO—Gavi is ­co-leading COVAX, which will act as a platform to support the development, manufacturing, procurement and delivery of as wide a range of COVID-19 vaccine candidates as possible.

To increase our chances of success, COVAX has created the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of these vaccines, with nine candidate vaccines already in development, a further nine under evaluation, and options to include other vaccines. This would help us reach our target of procuring and deploying two billion safe and effective vaccines by the end of 2021.

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The challenge of ensuring access to vaccines during a pandemic is different from any other time—because the vaccine is needed everywhere simultaneously. Rich and poor countries are all affected and, therefore, questions of manufacturing, pricing, supply, distribution and ­deployment are vastly more complex. We have never had a global system to oversee the procurement and allocation of vaccine supply at this scale. Many of the countries that have large manufacturing capacity are also understandably facing pressure to make supplies available first to their own population. However, no one is safe until everyone is safe. We need global solidarity and not vaccine nationalism. This is exactly why Gavi, together with its partners, have created the COVAX Facility so that all countries, rich or poor, have an equal chance to access COVID-19 vaccines at the same time.

The goal of the COVAX Facility is to ensure equitable access to all countries and ensure that those with low income are not pushed to the end of the queue or deprived of a global good. This is why we have set up the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), a financing instrument that will mobilise resources to support the procurement and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in 92 middle and low-income countries. This means countries that cannot fully afford to pay for COVID-19 vaccines themselves will get the same access as higher-income ­self-financing countries, and at the same time.

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To do this, the COVAX AMC requires an estimated investment of $7 billion, from sovereign donors, philanthropies and the private sector as well as additional funding to assist with vaccine delivery.

Delivering billions of doses of a vaccine in a short period of time is also unprecedented. Defining, identifying and reaching high risk populations in a speedy, efficient and effective manner would be a mammoth undertaking in every country.

(Views are personal)

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Deputy CEO, GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and former additional secretary and mission director, National Rural Health Mission