Bloomberg Editorial: Rich Countries Must Share Vaccines Faster

COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers say they are now producing 1.5 billion doses a month and will have produced 12 billion doses by the end of the year.

In theory, that would be enough to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population. The challenge is to ensure that those vaccines get where they are needed. Most of the doses coming off the production lines seem to be heading to rich countries that will soon have more than enough.

By the end of the year, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and Japan could have more than 600 million surplus doses, more than they already promised to donate, even after offering booster vaccines. By then, 20% of them may have expired and cannot be used elsewhere.

So far, the G7 countries have delivered less than 15% of the nearly 1.7 billion doses they pledged to donate to low- and middle-income countries.

Much of the developing world remains almost defenseless against COVID-19. To date, countries representing 40% of the world’s population have administered two-thirds of vaccines. About 56 nations, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have vaccinated less than 10% of their population, which the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, describes as “immoral” and “stupid”, And he’s right.

Large numbers of people die needlessly as the delta variant spreads across the developing world, not to mention the blow to the global economy and the potential for even more dangerous variants to emerge.

Three things need to happen as soon as possible.

First, the governments of rich countries should demand much more information about the producers’ plans. They need to see where, when and how many doses are expected to be delivered. That will allow them to measure their own needs alongside the planned supply and allow them to share excess doses more efficiently, rather than at short notice, often too late for vaccines to be used.

At his vaccine summit in September, US President Joe Biden proposed a global control plan to track vaccine production and delivery schedules. The US and other countries should exert a lot of pressure for manufacturers to comply.

Next, countries that already have enough vaccines should accelerate their donations and make way for deliveries to go elsewhere when they don’t need them. So far, the global Covax partnership has fallen short, primarily because it has not been delivered on its promised doses. This should be fixed.

It would also be helpful to know when supplies can be expected and received directly from the manufacturer rather than through donor countries. Advance notification is essential, especially for countries that are not well prepared to handle fragile mRNA vaccines.

Third, rich countries should quickly provide the $ 8 billion that WHO says is needed to help poor countries store, deliver and distribute vaccines. The infrastructure, cold chains and vaccinator teams needed to administer doses now need to be expanded so that they can handle the expected increase in supplies.

The fact that vaccines have not been distributed worldwide is bad enough, but there is an even bigger gap in funding for tests and drugs to treat COVID-19. Merck & Co.’s antiviral pill molnupiravir, which appears to cut the risk of hospitalization and death by half if given quickly, offers rich countries another way to help.

Merck has already entered into licensing agreements with several Indian generic manufacturers. Rich country support for additional production around the world could deliver quick results and save many lives. Subsidies to produce the components needed to make molnupiravir and other promising antivirals also make sense.

The longer the pandemic lasts, the greater its costs and risks, even for countries that have vaccinated the majority of their citizens. It is as much about self-interest as it is about benevolence.