Thread by @kakape

"As you know, this was a landmark week for COVAX with the first vaccinations starting in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire”, says @DrTedros at @WHO presser. "In total, COVAX has delivered more than 20 million doses of vaccine to 20 countries."

@DrTedros @WHO For those keeping score at home, the others are: Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Gambia, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Nigeria, Philippines, South Korea, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, and Uganda.

@DrTedros @WHO "This is encouraging progress, but the volume of doses being distributed through COVAX is still relatively small”, says @DrTedros. First round covers 2-3% of population of countries, "even as other countries make rapid progress towards vaccinating their entire population."

@DrTedros @WHO Urgent action is needed now to ramp up production, says @drtedros. "We currently face several barriers to increasing the speed and volume of production of vaccines from export bans to shortage of raw materials, including glass, plastic, and stoppers."

@DrTedros @WHO Short-term approach is to “connect companies who are producing vaccines with other companies who have excess capacity to fill and finish. This could help to speed up production and increase volumes”, says @drtedros (like J&J deal with Merck). "We need more partnerships like this"

@DrTedros @WHO Another approach: "bilateral technology transfer through voluntary licensing from a company that owns the patents on a vaccine to another company who can produce them” (like AZ vaccine licensed to SII and SKBio)
”The main disadvantage of this approach is the lack of transparency"

@DrTedros @WHO 3rd approach is "coordinated technology transfer”: "universities and manufacturers licensing their vaccines to other companies, through a global mechanism, coordinated by WHO, which would also facilitate the training of staff ... and coordinate investments in infrastructure."

@DrTedros @WHO “This provides more transparency and a more coherent global approach”, says @drtedros. "And it is a mechanism that would increase production capacity, not only for this pandemic but for future pandemics, and potentially for the production of vaccines for routine immunization".

@DrTedros @WHO To increase production, Intellectual property rights should be waived as provided for in TRIPS agreement, says @drtedros. "If now is not a time to use them, then when. .. WHO believes that this is a time to trigger that provision and waive patent rights."

@DrTedros @WHO “More distributed manufacturing has been pushed front and center by the pandemic”, says @mpkieny. "But this is something that we need to address anyway, if we are to improve both supply security, and the green agenda drive for shorter supply lines."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny "Once again, the pandemic is forcing us to think outside the box, and to move beyond the status quo”, says @mpkieny.

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny "The arrival of vaccine is a moment of great hope but it’s always potentially also a moment where we lose concentration”, says @DrMikeRyan. “If I think I'm going to get a vaccine maybe in the next few weeks … or the next two months, maybe I'm not so careful anymore."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan "You don't need a whole lot of people to start thinking like that, that we give the virus opportunities to spread”, says @DrMikeRyan. "Small changes in the behavior of a large number of people can lead to huge changes in the epidemiology of this virus."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan Three things are needed, says @DrMikeRyan:
- continuation of our own behaviours
- strong surveillance,
- vaccinations
“If we get those three things right, then I believe countries can begin to think about how they exit these very severe public health and social measures.”

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan "I really am very concerned”, says @DrMikeRyan.
"We think we're through this.
We're not.
And countries are going to lurch back into third and fourth surges if we're not careful”, he says.
“We should not waste, the hope that vaccines bring."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan Situation in Brazil is very concerning, says @DrTedros.
“I think Brazil has to take this very, very seriously”, he says. “The public health measures that Brazil takes should be aggressive, while also rolling out vaccines."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan “We are concerned about the P.1 variant”, says @DrMikeRyan. “It carries some very specific mutations that confer on the virus very particular advantages, particularly around transmission... no question that it has added to the complexity of the situation that Brazil faces."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan “There is no question that a proportion of these cases that are occurring now are reinfections”, says @DrMikeRyan.
“The scientists in South America deserve our full support to fully understand the dynamics because this is important for the rest of the world."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan “The public health or behavioral measures, the things that protect you against the original strains still protect you and your community from P.1 strain or any other strain. It is still our best bet”, says @DrMikeRyan. "Unfortunately or fortunately, it is still in our hands."

@DrTedros @WHO @mpkieny @DrMikeRyan “We've learned a lot about this disease and it's happened because of international collaboration and sharing of data and information”, says @doctorsoumya, points to @WHO’s patient clinical data platform as an example.