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Geneva: The World Health Organization and its allies said they expect Africa to provide about 30% of the COVID-19 vaccine the continent needs by February, badly missing the 60% vaccination coverage target that African leaders have set. once hoped for this year.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the huge disparity in vaccination rates between rich and poor countries a solvable problem and called on pharmaceutical companies again to prioritize the UN-backed initiative, which Known as COVAX, which is designed to be shared. Vaccines globally.
But drugmakers, including Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna, have shown no sign that they are eager to change their current strategy, which includes appealing to wealthy countries and their regulators to authorize booster shots.
Tedros last week called for a moratorium on the use of boosters in healthy populations by the end of the year. Countries including Israel, France and Germany have already started giving a third dose to some people; The UK on Tuesday announced plans to give boosters to people over the age of 50, as well as younger people who may be more vulnerable to COVID-19.
In the US, the FDA is going to publicly debate the topic of boosters this week. In an opinion piece this week, two top FDA officials and senior WHO scientists wrote in the Lancet that the average person does not need a booster shot.
To date, less than 4% of Africans have been fully vaccinated and of the 5.7 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide, most have been given in only 10 wealthy countries.
COVAX has missed almost all of its targets and has now resorted to begging wealthy countries to share their vaccine doses.
Dr. Seth Berkeley, CEO of vaccine alliance Gavi, said COVAX expects to have 1.4 billion doses ready for delivery by the end of this year, about a quarter short of its original target.
Benedict Ormah, president of Afraximbank, warned that 500 million to 600 million more would be needed on the conservative side for booster shots in Africa, and that if logistics costs are included, that would mean 1 billion per year.
The African Union’s envoy for COVID-19 vaccines, Strive Masiwa, also called for the removal of export restrictions and intellectual property rights to allow vaccine production within Africa.
In June, WHO and its partners launched a hub in South Africa aimed at transferring the technology needed to make vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna, but neither of those companies have yet to share their vaccine recipes. has not agreed to.
It’s not an unreasonable call, because our neighbors in the US support these companies to produce some of these vaccines, Masieva said. May this miracle now be available to all mankind.
Read also: WHO issues a rare public scolding, tells countries not to waste time
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