BRUSSELS, Europe Brief News – The Global project to provide Covid-19 vaccine is failing to supply more than 300 million doses. The issue raises the concern that immunizing the world now is more dependent on demand than supply.
Wealthy Nations took most Chunks of the available shots to facilitate their own citizens first which left low income countries stranded.
Even though the supply and donations have increased, poor nations are still facing a number of challenges from cold chain shortage to lack of money to support distribution networks.
COVAX, The Global vaccine program by Gavi and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the allocation of 436 million vaccines to countries.
But low income countries only asked for about 100 million doses for distribution at the end of may. As per COVAX, after 14 allocation, this is the first time that global programme supply has surpassed the vaccine demand.
Gavi spokesperson said “ COVAX was now in a situation where there was enough current supply to meet demand, but acknowledged that the roll out of vaccines was an issue in several developed nations”.
He further added “ We will only close the vaccine equity gap once and for all if we are able to help countries roll out vaccines rapidly and at scale”.
We are aware of the fact that wealthy nations have started to open their economies and are trying to get back to what was normal before Covid-19 introduction.
The WHO and Health Experts have warned that the slow introduction of vaccines in the low income countries will create a chance for coronavirus to mutate again and produce some of it’s new variants.
Disinformation and Funding For Covid Vaccine:
The problem is quite severe for the COVAX as AstraZeneca has replaced Pfizer shots which come with a requirement to be kept in the cold temperature.
Few South African countries have gaps at every single point in the cold chain from national level to local distribution centers. These countries include Guinea and Burundi.
Public Health Officials said “ The issue is worsened by a lack of funding because countries have not had enough notice of delivery, particularly donations making it harder for them to plan vaccine campaigns”.
The funding is also starting to decline in amount for covid-19 as wealthy nations seek to move on from Covid.
