‘With rich nations hoarding 51% doses, no vaccine for 25% of world’s population until at least 2022’

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States have said that nearly one in four people across the world may not have access to COVID-19 vaccines until at least 2022. This is because rich countries with less than 15% of the global population have reserved 51% of the doses of the most promising vaccines.

They noted that the remainder would have to be shared by low and middle-income countries which are home to more than 85% of the world’s population.

As of November 15, high-income nations had pre-ordered nearly 7.5 billion doses of vaccines from 13 manufacturers, the paper said. This included Japan, Australia and Canada who collectively have more than 1 billion doses but accounted for less than 1% of Covid-19 cases, it said.

Nearly 25% of the world’s population may not get the vaccines for another year or more even if leading manufacturers’ vaccines reach their projected maximum production capacity, according to the paper, as per a report carried by The Indian Express.

An effective response to the pandemic requires high-income countries “to share in an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the world,” they wrote.

“The uncertainty over global access to COVID-19 vaccines traces not only to ongoing clinical testing, but also from the failure of governments and vaccine manufacturers to be more transparent and accountable over these arrangements,” they added.

WHO’s COVAX Facility could play a key role in ensuring fairer access to approved vaccines but it has only secured 500 million doses, far below its target of delivering at least 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, the researchers said. The global pact, launched in April, aims to pool funds from wealthier countries and nonprofits to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and distribute them equitably around the world. It has so far secured only half of the funding it needs and the US and Russia – key players in vaccine development and manufacture – have not joined, the study said.