Here is why vaccine nationalism harms efforts to halt the #COVID19 pandemic: econ.st/3k1zyDo
Going it alone will perpetuate the economic and health crisis—for all!
Going it alone will perpetuate the economic and health crisis—for all!
The 🌍 is suffering but rays of light are visible. Several #COVID19 vaccines are in the final stages of their trials. Factories are producing doses, in the hope they'll receive approval. There's a chance that by the end of 2020, mass vaccinations could start for high-risk people.
“Vaccine nationalism” invites the same problems that were seen at the outset of lockdowns in March, when different authorities scrambled for masks, gowns & sanitiser. Once new vaccines, drugs & tests become available, demand will vastly outstrip supply & things will get worse.
A #COVID19 vaccine will be a precious resource. Unless we have an international plan to manage it fairly, there will be unnecessary price spikes, with unneeded hoarding in some places and life-threatening shortages in others. That suits no one’s interests.
Global coordination will ensure that the #COVID19 vaccines are distributed on the basis of those who need it most. It also spreads a country’s risk, ensuring it has access to numerous vaccine candidates in case its preferred one doesn’t work, & is a faster return to normal life.
No one nation has access to all the R&D, manufacturing and the full supply chain of essential materials and medicines. Hence, using finite supplies strategically and globally is in every country's national interest, not an act of altruism. #COVID19
COVAX is a groundbreaking way to pool R&D & procurement risks across multiple vaccines. It enables countries to place collective bets on all vaccines in the portfolio & scale up the manufacturing capacity so that whichever works, all COVAX members can access them at the same time
The majority of the 🌍 has got behind COVAX, though some countries are still deliberating whether to join & a few are contemplating going it alone.
The more countries involved, the more likely it is that vaccines will be rationally distributed & #COVID19 will be stamped out.
The more countries involved, the more likely it is that vaccines will be rationally distributed & #COVID19 will be stamped out.
Over the coming days, the decision that countries make about whether to share or keep an oversupply of #COVID19 vaccines will not only determine how fast the world comes out of the crisis, but also be a defining moment of this new decade & set a new norm for global cooperation.
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