Throughout 2020 there was a major initiative between the World Health Organization (WHO) and its members to create a substantive plan to get the vaccinations distributed throughout the member states. This plan has been ongoing and has allowed for numerous countries to begin vaccinating as early as December 2020.
In August 2020, the WHO released the following message:
172 economies are now engaged in discussions to potentially participate in COVAX, a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved. COVAX currently has the world’s largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio – including nine candidate vaccines, with a further nine under evaluation and conversations underway with other major producers. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.
The Rollout, Rationalized:
The actual rollout of the vaccines differs greatly by country. In an interview with NPR they discuss how Israel, Pakistan and Philippines are handling the distribution, each very differently. Below is the interview from experts out on the field in these countries in early January 2021.
Israel:
“Israel is outpacing every other country in the world in vaccinations per capita. It is a major drive seven days a week, even on the Sabbath, which is unusual. They’re starting with people over 60. But even younger Israelis are getting appointments already. And the goal is to vaccinate a fourth of Israel citizens by the end of next month, including all the elderly. And this… is doable. Israel is small, just under 9 million citizens. Half a million have already received the Pfizer vaccine. And Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, says Israel may be the first to conquer the virus.”
Pakistan:
“Pakistan aims to start vaccinating an estimated 10 million health care workers starting in early April 2021. That’s more than the entire population of Israel. They’ve purchased the Pfizer vaccine for that cohort. But it needs to be kept below freezing. Pakistan doesn’t have the resources to do that. So, a health worker here tells me that the World Health Organization will provide the dry ice they need to ship it out. But here’s where it gets interesting. Wealthy Pakistanis will be able to purchase the vaccine individually starting from the second quarter of 2021, because that’s when the government will allow private companies to import the vaccine for sale. Now, not many other countries I know are doing this. But in Pakistan, the health sector is really under-resourced. So, this relieves the government of taking care of its wealthy citizens. As for everyone else, they’ll have to wait for the second or even third quarter of next year. And that’s when they’re waiting for 88 million doses of a Chinese vaccine to come in. That still won’t cover the entire population. But they’re hoping by then that they’ll secure deals with other companies. So, this process won’t take a few months. It’ll likely take a year or even more.”
Philippines:
“The Philippines, first of all, is going for herd immunity. It’s vaccinating some 60 million rather than the entire 110 million population. And the rollout won’t be until May of 2021, front liners likely sooner. There’s a big dispute about whether the health ministry fumbled a deal with Pfizer that would have landed the vaccine in the country earlier. But the government regrouped. The Philippines is on the verge of securing 80 million doses of vaccines, all from Western manufacturers, including Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. That’s a big deal because President Rodrigo Duterte wanted Russian and Chinese vaccines. But China hasn’t disclosed data from its clinical trials. And the Philippine FDA wants that. And there’s also no word on any deal with COVAX.”
To listen to the full interview visit: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/30/951363656/examining-COVID-19-vaccination-efforts-around-the-world
The Affluent Preference:
The New York Times recently published an article about the impacts of wealthy nations disproportionately vaccinating; thus, leaving poorer nations with inadequate resources for vaccinations. In monopolizing the supply of vaccines against COVID-19, wealthy nations are threatening more than a humanitarian catastrophe: the resulting economic devastation will hit affluent countries nearly as hard as those in the developing world.
This is the crucial takeaway from an academic study to be released. In the most extreme scenario — with wealthy nations fully vaccinated by the middle of this year, and poor countries largely shut out — the study concludes that the global economy would suffer losses exceeding $9 trillion, a sum greater than the annual output of Japan and Germany combined. In the scenario that researchers term most likely, in which developing countries vaccinate half their populations by the end of the year, the world economy would still absorb a blow of between $1.8 trillion and $3.8 trillion. More than half of the pain would be concentrated in wealthy countries.
What are the consequences of the affluent preference?
If people in developing countries remain out of work because of lockdowns required to prevent the spread of the virus, they will have less money to spend, reducing sales for exporters in North America, Europe and East Asia. Multinational companies in advanced nations will also struggle to secure required parts, components and commodities. It’s expected that the industries this could impact the most are: automotive, textiles, construction and retail, where sales could decline more than 5 percent.
The wealthiest countries in North America and Europe secured orders for most of the global vaccine supply — enough to vaccinate two and three times their populations — leaving poor countries scrambling to secure their share. Many developing countries, from Bangladesh to Tanzania to Peru, will likely have to wait until 2024 before fully vaccinating their populations.
“Clearly, all economies are connected,” said Selva Demiralp, an economist at Koc University in Istanbul who previously worked at the Federal Reserve in Washington. “No economy will be fully recovered unless the other economies are recovered.” Ms. Demiralp noted that a global philanthropic initiative known as the ACT Accelerator — which is aimed at providing pandemic resources to developing countries — has secured commitments for less than $11 billion toward a $38 billion target. The study lays out the economic rationale for closing the gap. The remaining $27 billion may, on its face, look like an enormous sum, but is a pittance compared with the costs of allowing the pandemic to carry on.
In summary
The vaccine rollout, even though intended to provide guaranteed vaccination to all countries, has not been equal. There is an obvious disparity in the access to the vaccine, the quantity distributed to each country, and the actual logistics of vaccine distribution within country.