At Current situation, More than 160 vaccine candidates in pre-clinical or clinical trials 29 of them in clinical trials.Six in final stages, phase-III of human trials.coronavirus(Covid-19) vaccine is recently prepared in Russia.The US, UK, and the European Union have spent tens of billions of dollars on deals with vaccine front runners such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Oxford Astra Zeneca.
There are fears that such advance agreements will make the initial few vaccines unaffordable and inaccessible to everyone apart from the rich. countries in a world of roughly 8billion people.
This has led to the World Health Organization(WHO) warning that nations that hoard possible Covid-19 vaccines while excluding others would deepen the pandemic.
What is vaccine nationalism?
When a country manages to secure doses of vaccines for its own citizens or residents and prioritises its own domestic markets before they are made available in other Countries it is known as‘vaccine nationalism.
This is done through pre-purchase agreements between a government and a vaccine manufacturer For example,the United States,the United Kingdom, Japan,and the European Union have spent ten of billions of dollars on deals with vaccine front runners such as Pfizer Inc, Johnson&Johnson and Astra Zeneca Plc even before their effectiveness is proven.
Vaccine nationalism is not new!
The present race to hoard Covid-19 vaccines harks back to a similar situation that happened in 2009 during the H1N1 flu pandemic.Australia,the first country to come up with a vaccine, blocked exports while some of the wealthiest countries entered into pre-purchase agreements with several pharmaceutical companies.The US alone obtained the right to buy 600,000 doses.
Secured deals worth millions.
According to London-based analytics firm Airfinity, the US,Britain,European Union and Japan have so far secured about 1.3billion doses of potential Covid-19 vaccines. If seen country wise, the US has already agreed to buy some 800 million doses from six drug makers, and the UK 280million from five. Last week, the European Union negotiated with Astra Zeneca for the purchase of 300million doses of the vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University. It has also struck a deal with French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi for 300 million doses.
What are its drawbacks? What is the alternative?
The major drawback of vaccine nationalism is that it puts countries with fewer resources and bargaining power at a disadvantage. Thus, if countries with a large number of cases lag in obtaining the vaccine, the disease will continue to disrupt global supply chains and,as a result, economies around the world. The alternative to arrest vaccine nationalism is global collaboration, which is being done through the WHO-backed COVAX Facility mechanism. Sofar,more than 170 countries have expressed interest about 90 low-and middle-income countries and 80 fully self-financing countries.
