Covax effort to vaccinate the world is faltering

 

It's been a quite long time and many developing countries have not gotten the vaccine yet. Fair or unfair?

COVAX was created in 2020 with the intention of supplying vaccines to those countries of low income, and distributing them equitably around the world. Wealthy nations were asked to buy doses through COVAX and donate money to buy doses for countries that weren't able to afford them on their own. ​

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Covax aims started to fail, largely because wealthy countries bought most of the new vaccines before they were even approved by regulators for emergency use. and also because India suspended the export of vaccines made in the country, which has been suffering a devastating outbreak. COVAX had been relying on the Serum Institute of India to supply more than half of its doses, and the resulting shortage left the organization unable to fulfill its pledges to many countries.

However, the situation might change for the better when President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. will share 19 million doses with COVAX by the end of the month and directly provide another six million to countries in need. Canada said as well that it will donate the extra doses it has. ​

Steven Hoffman, a professor of global health, law and political science at York University in Toronto, mentioned that even with G7 donations of a billion doses in the next year, only about one in 20 people in a low-income country will be vaccinated by the end of December. ​

Unfortunately COVAX was meant to supply COVID-19 vaccines for all based on solidarity and equity. Instead, it relies on rich countries willingness to share their doses.