More than 170 countries have signed up to the WHO’s COVAX facility, which aims to share future vaccines with developing nations.
“The facility is critical mechanism for joint procurement and pooling risk across multiple vaccines so that whatever vaccine is proven to be safe and effective, all countries in the facility will be able to access them. Most importantly, it is the mechanism for a globally coordinated roll-out,” says WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO aims to deliver two billion effective vaccines by the end of next year, should a successful candidate be found.
But as it works to ensure a collective approach, others are working at bilateral deals.
The United States (US) and European nations are amongst those looking to strike deals directly with pharmaceutical firms — with four EU countries securing 400 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
US President Donald Trump is looking to fast-track the same vaccine in his country, ahead of November’s election.
The WHO has warned against rushing the process.
“Now safety is assessed short term but also needs to be assessed longer term, there are some side effects only picked up latter. That’s why it’s so important to have these clinical trials conducted to the usual standards and norms, so the data can be examined by the experts,” says Dr Soumya Swaminathan.
Countries now have until the 31st of August to join the COVAX facility — with the WHO warning that so-called vaccine nationalism could prolong the pandemic.
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