One in four people globally may not get COVID-19 vaccines until 2022

[snoop1130]

One in four people globally may not get COVID-19 vaccines until 2022

By Thin Lei Win

 

A nurse administers the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Guy's Hospital in London, Britain December 8, 2020. Frank Augstein/Pool via REUTERS

 

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nearly one in four people may not get COVID-19 vaccines until at least 2022 because rich countries with less than 15% of the global population have reserved 51% of the doses of the most promising vaccines, researchers said on Tuesday.

 

Low- and middle-income countries - home to more than 85% of the world's population - would have to share the remainder, said researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States.

 

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.

 

As of Nov. 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 current novel coronavirus cases, it said.

 

Even if leading manufacturers' vaccines reach their projected maximum production capacity, nearly 25% of the world's population may not get the vaccines for another year or more, according to the paper.

 

The People's Vaccine Alliance coalition last week said pharmaceutical companies should openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organisation (WHO) so that more doses can be manufactured.

 

The John Hopkins researchers said 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.

 

Launched in April, the global pact 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 half of the funding it needs and the United States and Russia - key players in vaccine development and manufacture - have not joined, the Johns Hopkins study said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-16

 

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[ukrules]

Those excess reservations will be freed up in due course, they were needed to guarantee mass manufacture....the market will sort itself out....

[unblocktheplanet]

On 12/16/2020 at 6:01 PM, ukrules said:

Those excess reservations will be freed up in due course, they were needed to guarantee mass manufacture....the market will sort itself out....

I'm not so sure, though, it isn't greed by Western countries to mollify voters. Thus far, I've seen no transparent numbers about who's paying who how much. Free market capitalism has never been, you know, free. Surely, the pharmacos are not making vaccines from largesse!

 

And what is the end cost to consumers. I doubt highly doubt vaccination will be free for the many expats who have been (conveniently) 'trapped here, though proof of one will almost certainly be required of us to re-enter.

 

In that case, some of us will watch vaccine results. Does it work, and for how long, and longer-terms effects. If the virus mutates, will vaccines continue to offer protection.

 

Lots of questions without any answers yet. We're part of a giant experiment. I'm not gay, or haemophiliac, so I dodged the AIDS virus for which there is yet no vaccine, only to face this!

[XBroker]

There is no globe.

[Clive]

Were all going to need an annual Jab anyway, probably twinned with the flu vaccine. At least until the scientists have been able to determine the effects over a longer period of time

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

An interesting update on the state of per capita vaccination as of the end of December in Israel vs the U.S., where the U.S.'s Operation Warp Speed (for Star Trek fans) has slowed to impulse power.

 

Israel leads world in COVID vaccinations per capita

 

"Israel has already immunized about 647,000 people against COVID-19, a whopping 7% of its more than 9.2M residents, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health. In fact, the country has vaccinated more people in the first nine days of its campaign than its total coronavirus infections, which currently stands at 420,000.

...

The success in rapidly rolling out doses could hold lessons for countries like the U.S., which has only vaccinated roughly 0.8% of its population against COVID-19 as of Wednesday. Only about 2.8M Americans had received a dose going into the last day of December - far short of the government's target to vaccinate 20M people this month - while 11.2M vials are still sitting on shelves across the country."

 

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3648167-israel-leads-world-in-covid-vaccinations-per-capita

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/31/covid-vaccine-israel-says-its-inoculated-7percent-of-its-population-its-less-than-1percent-in-us.html

 

 

 

[internationalism]

it's enough to vax 75-80% population to stop pandemic. Probably not needed for children and young, they have many vax boosting their immune system.

 

some 60% of health workers in the USA are refusing vax. Possibly in the rest population those refusing is probably higher. So those countries which ordered vax for everybody (some countries reserved many times more, the UK 200mln for 70mln population) might have many to spare and sell before their expiry date.

 

I think many are not rushing for vax, prefer to have a choice from several ones, after they were used on others and side effects and long term risks are better known.

 

Personally I would be delaying, especially that for foreigners in thailand it won't be free, not covered by insurance and those offered in private hospitals would be expensive, in hundreds of $.

To avoid risks, before shot I would do test for antibodies. I might had infection already 1 or 2 times, with very mild symptoms. 

If antibodies are checked for everybody before vax, it would allow allocate them to those, who really need. 

 

I would also delay timing between shots, if they would require more than one shot.

I would also wait for the next wave of infections, not just when there is no virus at the time. That would allow for the newest version of vax to be distributed.

 

There also might be recommendations for vax which already exist for long for other illnesses, those were in use and they don't have side effects. Probably any vax will temporarily boost an immune system 

Edited January 2, 2021 by internationalism