Proactive means to vaccinate TT

By PENNY ELIAS

IT IS now clear that the Covax facility, set up by the WHO to ensure equal distribution of approved vaccines, is likely to be a total disaster.

Earlier this week, the WHO director-general said the world was on the brink of a “catastrophic moral failure” because the richest countries are snapping up all available supplies, leaving little or none for poorer nations, and that the very concept of Covax is at risk.

It is widely reported, for example, that Canada has pre-ordered five times the number of doses it needs to vaccinate its entire population. Even Trump, whilst promoting the idea that covid19 was “fake news,” pre-ordered hundreds of millions of doses, and refused to join Covax – hedging his bets, no doubt.

President Biden announced on Thursday that the US will join Covax after all, so maybe a few hundred thousand more of their doses will find their way to poorer countries, who knows?

Meanwhile, in September 2020,the Prime Minister said TT had signed up to Covax in order to get equal access to vaccines as and when approved, and that “TT has pre-ordered vaccines to cover 33 per cent of our population, that is, 461,000 people, at a cost of $9.7 million.” He said an initial payment of $1.477 million was made.

He added that once a vaccine is approved, TT will receive, in the first instance, enough doses for 20 per cent of the population, or 279,000 people. This all sounded most encouraging – until January 4, when Health Minister Deyalsingh announced that Government will be “requesting 50,000 vaccines for 25,000 citizens,” from PAHO and the WHO, which will probably be available towards the end of March, subject to the 3 As - Availability, Allocation and Access.

That is less than ten per cent of what Dr Rowley said would be available “in the first instance.” Is this because, as Dr Tedros of the WHO has stated, resources have been largely hogged by rich countries, which are already rolling out their vaccination programmes, leaving lesser nations to gratefully await the scraps from their tables?

What happened to the hundreds of thousands of doses we apparently signed up for, and paid a deposit towards? And what can be done about it? I’m sure most of our Caricom neighbours are experiencing the same issues.

On January 14, Kiran Mathur Mohammed, in a column in Newsday, made the case that we will need over two million doses to vaccinate enough of the population to achieve the much vaunted “herd immunity,” using a two-dose vaccine.

Clearly, fully vaccinating 25,000 people by the end of April (optimistically) is completely unsatisfactory, and other ways have to be explored to roll out a proper vaccination programme instead of relying on a facility that’s been found sorely lacking by its own originator.

Mr Mohammed described the negative effects of the pandemic on all fronts, social, economic, emotional and health in general. He also did a cost analysis, indicating that another US$40-$76 million would be required to do the job, depending on the vaccine used, which represents only between 0.5. and 1 per cent of our 2021 annual budget (I am assuming that his figures are correct).

He argues, convincingly, that this is money we have to find for the recovery of the economy and our general well-being, as another year or more of virtual lock down will not be well-tolerated.

However, if money is a problem, could Government not consider a public-private partnership (PPP) with the private sector, whereby the latter could fund additional vaccines to make available to those willing and able to pay for it, leaving the government-funded vaccine available to those who cannot?

PPP seem to be the new kid on the block when it comes to construction, as the private sector raises funds for the work to be carried out, so why not apply the same concept to vaccinating our population? Surely it’s worth looking at, especially since it’s clear that we cannot rely on “equitable distribution” through the WHO’s Covax initiative.

Indeed, it could be a regional initiative all up the islands. For example, in tourist-based economies, I’m sure some of the large hotel chains which are closed and losing money hand over fist right now, would willingly contribute if it meant getting all hospitality workers inoculated so their facilities could be reopened as soon as possible.