Rowley, WHO head: Equal access to covid19 vaccines critical

THE Prime Minister and World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus have said equity of access to covid19 vaccines is critical to bringing the pandemic under control.

Dr Rowley and Ghebreyesus expressed this position in a joint opinion entitled – This is our best chance at defeating the pandemic – published on CNN's website on Friday.

The opinion noted that nurse Keisha Prevatt-Gomez was the first frontline health worker to be vaccinated in Trinidad and Tobago this week. TT received 2,000 vaccines donated by Barbados out of a shipment of 100,000 sent to that country by the government of India.

"The joint opinion also noted similar efforts of Ugandan midwife Harriet Nayiga and Pakistani nurse Sana Baloch's in their respective countries.

After stressing that frontline health care workers should be thanked for their bravery and sacrifice during the pandemic, the opinion said, "Platitudes are not enough. A year into this pandemic, it is a miracle that more than 80 countries are rolling out vaccines."

But the opinion added, "most of those shots have been administered in a handful of rich countries."

It continued that the United Nations has indicated that health workers in 130 low- and middle-income countries are still waiting to receive the vaccine. "Vaccine equity has become covid19's defining issue," it said.

"At the pandemic's onset, drastic shortages of personal protective equipment endangered health workers worldwide. It was an outrage that these workers were on the front lines, saving lives at the risk of their own. Fast forward to 2021, many of those same health workers now lack the protection offered by vaccines."

The opinion said to date "richer countries with bigger budgets have struck bilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers, securing hundreds of millions of doses before other countries have had a chance." The opinion added, "This has sent a worrying message that the health of those in developed countries is worth more than those in other parts of the world."

The pandemic, the opinion stressed, will not be defeated "if countries go it alone." The solution supporting equity to covid19 vaccine access can be found in initiatives such as the Access to covid19 tools (ACT) Accelerator and its vaccine arm, Covax.

The opinion added that Covax "will distribute about 100,000 to 120,000 doses of the vaccine to TT, which has also played a role in securing 260,000 more doses as part of a collective arrangement between the Caribbean Community and the African Medical Council."

Such initiatives have created "the only clear global paths for ensuring the world's most vulnerable don't miss out when vaccines, treatments and diagnostics are available." The ACT-Accelerator was launched a year ago by the WHO, the President of France, the President of the European Commission and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The accelerator has played a key role in the research, development, manufacturing and distribution of diagnostic tests, analysed clinical trials for promising treatments and surveyed more than 100 countries to identify health system bottlenecks. Covax is securing vaccine doses through advance purchase agreements with manufacturers, which will soon be administered in low- and middle-income countries.

Covax has the support of 190 countries and territories, including the Biden administration in the US, which announced a US$2 billion donation to the facility on Friday.