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LLUÍS MIQUEL HURTADO
@llmhurtado
Istanbul
Sunday, 3January2021-22: 20
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Wide Angle The diplomacy of the Covid-19 vaccine: this is how countries have mobilized to achieve it
The call of Pope Francis is serving little or nothing during Christmas.
"May the Son of God renew, in government and political leaders, a spirit of international cooperation, beginning with health care, so that everyone has guaranteed access to vaccines and treatment," the Supreme Pontiff asked during the
Urbi et Orbi
.
Just the opposite is happening.
While the first world monopolizes the bulk of the doses, the majority of humanity will have to wait.
"More than 50% of the vaccines to be manufactured during 2021 are already committed to at least 25% of the population. What about the remaining 75%?" Asks
Miriam Alía
, head of vaccines at Doctors Without Borders.
The dilemma has its answer in front of the cameras.
Since last month we have seen first vaccination events in the United Kingdom, in the United States and in many European countries, including Spain.
None in Brazil, India or Nigeria.
Nor in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria or Iran, four countries close to Israel, the nation that takes, with 12% of its population injected, the
global race for immunization
against the coronavirus.
Social, political and, above all, economic differences condemn the inhabitants of the countries of the western periphery or developing countries that, despite everything, have been hit as much or more by the pandemic than the more advanced ones.
"Having safe and effective vaccines against a completely unknown virus only a year ago is an amazing scientific success," recognized the head of the
World Health Organization
(WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus.
"But an even greater achievement would be to ensure that all countries enjoy the benefits of science equitably," he added.
A message that was accompanied by a call to collect donations to finance access to vaccines for the most disadvantaged.
For the MSF expert, however, "it is not an economic issue."
The biggest problem, he insists, goes beyond the difficulties that some countries may have to pay for vaccines for all their citizens.
"No company can supply all the countries of the world and, moreover, a large part of the production has already been committed to rich countries. So there are countries with low and middle income that it is not that they cannot pay them. It is that they are not going to have a dose, "Alía emphasizes.
To explain herself, the health worker turns to pastry: "It is not about distributing the cake, but about having more ovens."
In other words, given the urgent need to quickly vaccinate millions of people around the globe, production centers multiply and, above all, some of them are opened in those countries that are not being able to have access to vaccines for Covid .
To achieve this, MSF proposes
to temporarily suspend the patents
of the vaccine appealing to the emergency situation.
"By removing intellectual property, other laboratories will be able to produce them and thus supply vaccines to countries that, even if they pay, cannot have access to it," Miriam Alía points out.
Something that is not new, he needs.
After the discovery of
insulin
, in 1921, a symbolic price was established to facilitate its production.
In 2017, a German Federal Court upheld the issuance of a compulsory license, from the Patent Court, to manufacture an
AIDS
treatment
outside of its inventors.
Universal and equitable access
"Once the intellectual property is shared, almost all of them can be produced anywhere," emphasizes the vaccine manager at Doctors Without Borders.
Even those that use the innovative mRNA technology, developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, "even if it takes a little longer to implement."
India, for example, is one of the countries responsible for producing Moderna's vaccine.
However, if current licenses persist, only selected countries will be able to benefit from their vaccines.
The only effort to achieve equitable universal access to the Covid vaccine is being promoted by
Covax
.
At least 190 countries have joined this project to obtain vaccines for the less wealthy through a co-payment system, which is supported by the WHO and the Gavi alliance, sponsored by philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates.
However, despite the 2 billion doses committed, production and funds raised are meager compared to requirements.
Difficulties in accessing pioneer vaccines have opened a ban on obtaining them in other ways.
Turkey has begun to receive vaccines from the Chinese Sinovac while, according to media critical of the Government, Ankara is considering ratifying an agreement to extradite Chinese citizens, including Uyghurs, wanted by Beijing;
Iran, hard hit by the pandemic and a victim of US sanctions, has run into obstacles in purchasing vaccines.
Now, associated with Cuba, it is testing its own, in Phase 1. The strong
inequalities
in developing societies, however, raise concerns that vaccines will become a luxury that condemn part of the population to continue suffering from the pandemic , in front of a privileged few.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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