From Brenda Steele:
Was listening to R4 last night to presenter burbling on about Covax as though it was a big surprise.
Apparently, BBC has only just discovered that there is going to be a problem with distribution both from a technical (refrigeration) and a financial (cost for poor countries) point of view:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08zfyxk Covid-19: Ensuring vaccines are made globally available. With several Covid vaccines having shown very promising results in final-stage trials attention is now turning to vaccine distribution. A landmark global vaccine plan known as Covax is seeking to ensure an equitable distribution of future coronavirus vaccines. The joint initiative – between the Gavi vaccines alliance, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) – aims to procure enough vaccines for participating countries to inoculate at least 20% of their populations. We spoke to the UN’s Covax coordinator, Gian Gandhi, about this challenging task.
Here is a piece from August when the planning through WHO was well under way:
Worldwide Covid-19 vaccination rollout ‘in the interest of all countries’ – WHO 24/08/2020A globally coordinated rollout of a coronavirus vaccine will be in the “interests of all countries”, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) director general has said
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned against “vaccine nationalism” and said global competition to create one could lead to prices spiking “exponentially”, which would only prolong the virus.
Instead, he urged countries to support the Covax vaccines facility, which has the “largest and most diverse” Covid-19 vaccine portfolio in the world.
He told a WHO press briefing on Monday that 172 countries were “engaging” with the mechanism, which aims to deliver at least two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021
This is the WHO in June:
Dr Swaminathan presented the investment requirements to develop the vaccines as rapidly as possible, and manufacture at the right volumes without compromising on safety. She said that in addition to upfront investment in research and development and manufacturing, commitments from high-income and upper middle-income countries were needed to procure 950 million doses through the COVAX Facility, and to ensure that vaccines can be delivered at the greatest possible speed.
We know that humans are capable of being a selfish lot and of course manipulative, so why would it be any different with a vaccine for a deadly virus that is hitting most countries of the globe. Black market, cheap immitations, give us your oil/gold/sand/coal/gas or whatever, and you get the vaccine. Indy ref = no vaccine Scotland. Pay upfront, no money, too bad. Just some senarios that spring to mind, me being the biggest sceptic of the week.
State run BBC playing down the situation, even when it comes to distributing a vaccine, they tell the plebs as little as possible if anything. Might Brexit just pose a few teensy problems in accessing the vaccine in the UK, thousands of lorries stuck in a car park in Kent could be a bit of a hindrance.
With airlines going out of business, it could get tricky flying the life limited vaccine around the globe. Hmm, Brexit, what could possibly go wrong now?
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typo, meant scenarios…
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