COVAX-19 mechanism. (Artwork: ABC News) In 2020, the Mechanism of “Global Access to Vaccines Against Covid-19” (COVAX for short) was established to help all countries have the opportunity to have quick, equitable and equal access to vaccines. prevent Covid-19. However, the goals of the above initiative are being “missed” due to lack of capital and selfishness of some developed countries. Launched in 2020, COVAX aims to buy two billion doses of vaccine to distribute to countries supporting the fight against Covid-19 before the end of 2021. However, the above ambitious plan is at risk of bankruptcy when Statistics show that, so far, only 68 million doses of vaccine from COVAX have been delivered, reaching 3.4% of the plan. Meanwhile, by the end of May 2021, there were 1.5 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine distributed worldwide, but only about 0.3% of them reached countries with low income. low input. World health experts point out that the disappointing results mentioned above are not due to the lack of efforts by the people in charge of the COVAX program of the World Health Organization (WHO), but mainly due to a lack of funding. There is a shortage of vaccine supplies, and rich countries are unwilling to share vaccines with poor countries. COVAX is intended to be a not-for-profit financial attraction structure. Accordingly, rich countries contribute financially to research many different vaccines at the same time to find some effective vaccines, and then provide them for free to 92 low-income countries who cannot afford to buy them. vaccine against Covid-19. For this mechanism to work, there needs to be enough rich countries to invest and commit to receive vaccines through COVAX. However, in reality, this initiative did not receive the necessary funds to support research and purchase the vaccine in the early stages. Even, many rich countries have signed contracts to buy vaccines individually with manufacturers such as Pfizer, Moderna, delaying the implementation of contracts for large-scale production of vaccines in 2021 under the COVAX mechanism. A major problem hindering COVAX’s vaccine supply efforts is the tight supply of vaccines. Part of the reason for this is the serious epidemic situation in India. The main vaccine supplier for COVAX is the Serum Institute of India, which is producing the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, with the outbreak of the disease, the planned supply of vaccine for COVAX had to be diverted to serve India’s domestic demand. WHO and the Global Vaccine Alliance Gavi, representing the organizations initiating the COVAX Mechanism, have just issued a statement stating that an additional $2 billion is needed to increase the coverage of immunization programs to nearly 30 million. %. To secure vaccine delivery this year and early 2022, COVAX needs the above amount before June 2 to close the supply. According to the original target, COVAX is expected to provide two billion doses of vaccine to countries in 2021 and 1.8 billion doses in early 2022. “Financial bottlenecks” are hindering goals and efforts COVAX’s vaccine delivery force. COVAX initiative managers also warn that, if the current emergency shortage of a Covid-19 vaccine is not addressed, “the consequences could be dire.” The above fact shows that COVAX’s “vaccine for everyone” and “leave no country behind” plan are being delayed. This is not only a problem of COVAX founders and managers, but a big global problem. Because, variants of this virus and new waves of epidemics can enter and re-emerge in developed countries at any time. The only way for humanity to win the current pandemic together is for governments and people of countries, especially developed countries, to share difficulties, distribute vaccines appropriately, and join hands to fight Covid-19.

Medical staff treat COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Riga, Latvia. Photo: THX/VNA The report also highlights the importance of “overhauling” the global alarm system to prevent a similar disaster from happening again. Report “COVID-19: Making it the Last Pandemic” produced by the Independent Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) at the request of World Health Organization member countries. world (WHO). As policymakers make a series of ineffective decisions, the report says, adding to the scale and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the pandemic has killed at least 3.3 million people so far, while the global economy has been devastated. According to the IPPR, institutions “failed to protect the people” while leaders denying scientific data has eroded public confidence in health interventions. The lack of urgency in the early response to the COVID-19 outbreak detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 led to unfortunate consequences, when February 2020 became the “lost month”. cool” seriously in the context that the alarm situation has not been paid enough attention by countries. IPPR also said that WHO could have declared a global public health emergency (PHEIC), the highest alert level, on January 22, 2020. Instead, it took the organization eight days to do this. Then, only in March 2020 after WHO recognized COVID-19 as a pandemic, did countries realize the danger of the situation and really “get involved”. Ineffective strategic choices, unwillingness to address inequality issues, and “disparity” in coordination within a country or between countries have created a “toxic formula” that creates favorable conditions. for the COVID-19 pandemic to turn into “a catastrophic human crisis”. The threat of a pandemic has been ignored and countries are struggling to deal with its consequences. In order to reverse the current pandemic, IPPR recommends that the world’s richest countries from now until September 1 share 1 billion doses of vaccine to the 92 poorest countries through a mechanism of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines called COVID-19 vaccine. WHO-initiated COVAX and more than 2 billion doses of vaccine by mid-2022. IPPR calls on the world’s leading industrialized countries (G7) to pay 60% of the $19 billion needed to fund vaccine development, development diagnostic and therapeutic approaches through the WHO-led “Accelerated Access to COVID-19 Response Tools” global collaboration to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics to countries poorer. Health workers give people a COVID-19 vaccine in Essen, Germany. Photo: THX/VNA According to the committee, the group of the world’s leading developed and emerging economies (G20) and others need to support the rest. The WHO and the World Trade Organization (WTO) themselves also need to encourage countries and vaccine manufacturers to voluntarily agree to license and transfer technology to produce vaccines against COVID-19. To address future outbreaks and pandemics, the IPPR calls for the creation of a Global Health Threat Response Council made up of world leaders, as well as a convention on pandemics. Translate. The G20 should also set up an international pandemic response financing mechanism, whereby $5-10 billion can be spent per year on ensuring epidemic preparedness capacity, as well as ensuring readiness to mobilize $50 billion to $100 billion in the event of a crisis. Speaking at the event to announce the report, WHO Director-General Tedros Gebreyesus said the organization will join 194 members to discuss the above recommendations as well as the opinions of other expert groups, aiming to “construct” Stronger WHO, for a healthier, safer and fairer future for all of us.”

Nigeria will become the next big Covid-19 “outbreak” after India. (Source: Anadolu Agency/Getty) And experts are cautiously observing a developing country, with a large area, disparities in health services and unequal access to vaccines, like India, that is Nigeria. With 200 million people, it is the most populous country in West Africa and the 7th most populous country in the world. Ngozi Erondui, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House Center for Global Health Security in the UK, said that “Nigeria is really vulnerable” and “has a lot in common with India”. When rich countries are not willing to share The world will not be able to do anything to prevent Covid-19 from ravaging Nigeria like the situation is happening in the past days in India. A more equitable distribution of vaccines could build a “firewall” against the rise in infections in Nigeria, as well as in other less developed countries. However, that will require the more economically developed countries of the world to share rescue resources with poorer countries. The tragic case of India proves that the vaccine-rich country in the world will not be in a hurry to help poor countries on distant continents. In fact, Africa is not necessarily synonymous with “poverty”. The continent is huge and diverse, comprising 54 countries with 1.2 billion people running economies from large to small, rich to poor, strong to weak. Likewise, African countries’ pandemic experiences vary widely. South Africa, one of the wealthiest countries on the continent, was hit hard last summer and then returned in January. Officials in the region recorded more than 54,000 deaths. The mortality rate is 93 deaths per 100,000 population, a number far below the US 175 deaths per 100,000 population, but much higher than the global average of 38 deaths. per 100,000 inhabitants. So far, many less industrialized African countries have avoided catastrophic spikes in infections, recording fewer deaths than rich countries. A total of 580,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 while only 1,600 Nigerians have died from the pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 virus – “opportunistic” virus However, that doesn’t mean Covid-19 won’t reach Nigeria and other African countries, it just means it hasn’t arrived yet. Lawrence Gostin, a global health expert at Georgetown University, told T he Daily Beast : “I am seeing the possibility that the Covid-19 fires will ravage around the world in the weeks and months to come. And I’m most worried about Africa.” According to Mr. Gostin, “the crisis in India is a leading indicator of what is to come in other low- and middle-income countries”. Despite its crowded cities, limited public health measures and a patchwork health care system, India has so far been considered relatively fortunate. The South Asian country has 1.37 billion people but only 160,000 deaths so far in March, with a rate of 11 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Then, in April, a new and more contagious variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, known as B.1.617, emerged and spread across India, causing a record increase in cases and deaths. green. In just a few weeks, India had nearly 50,000 more deaths. The death rate rose to 15 per 100,000 population. When this article was published, the Covid-19 wave in India was underway, but the trend was already decreasing. The rate of new cases and deaths is decreasing. And while it is predicted that tens of thousands of more Indians will die before this spike is over, at least the pandemic has not gotten any worse in the country. But the SARS-CoV-2 virus is an opportunistic virus. It always finds places that are densely populated but have no protection. Spreading through the air from person to person, Covid-19 establishes a “laboratory” in each body that the virus infects. Each SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates after two weeks of infection for as long as it is active, and seeks to evolve so that it can create a new variant that is increasingly contagious. New variants help the virus spread even faster in a self-reinforcing cycle that ends only with drastic social distancing, vaccinations and antibodies among survivors, or more likely a combination of the virus. all three methods to cut off the transmission route of Covid-19. It is no coincidence that SARS-CoV-2 thrived in India this month. Popular religious festivals have attracted thousands of people who attended without wearing masks. Meanwhile, India’s vaccination effort is very bad. According to statistics, the South Asian country has fully vaccinated only 3% of the population, compared with more than 30% in the US. The global average for full immunization is also a little over 3%. From the epidemiologist’s point of view, Nigeria, with its many overcrowded cities, high poverty rates and shabby health system, is quite similar to India, but worse in some respects. India has at least some domestic vaccine manufacturers, while Nigeria has none. The African country must import all doses of the vaccine from outside. That explains why Nigeria only partially immunizes 1% of the population and almost no one is fully vaccinated. The Lagos government is expected to receive 84 million doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson in the coming weeks. But that number is only enough to inject a fifth of the country’s population. Meanwhile, the proportion that experts say could lead to “herd immunity” is vaccination of three-quarters of the population, which blocks most routes of transmission and can last up to year 2022. Shortage side, surplus side To help Nigeria and the underserved countries, the rich countries of the world should stop hoarding vaccines excessively. Of course, more shots are not a panacea, and even a country with many vaccines can have trouble administering. However, the vaccine shortage, and the hesitation among people who doubt the vaccine’s effectiveness, could further slow the vaccination process. Shaun Truelove, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that “the only way to know if Nigeria is managing vaccines well is to keep shipping the vaccine to the country”. Global supply is not the biggest problem. The United States, a country with many vaccine manufacturers, has a stockpile of more than 60 million doses of vaccine while continuing to have more vaccines supplied by factories, while vaccination rates are falling. especially for Republicans. It was only a few weeks after the sudden spike in Covid-19 in India that the administration of President Joe Biden promised to ship an additional number of vaccines to New Delhi. The AstraZeneca vaccine isn’t even authorized in the US. For Americans, those doses of vaccines are not only redundant but also useless. The problem of severe delays in the release of excess vaccines was anticipated a year ago. In the spring of 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) together with a number of international public-private partners, came together to establish the Global Access to Vaccines Covid-19 initiative, or COVAX. The COVAX initiative allows rich countries to pay for vaccines to poor countries. COVAX’s goal was to deliver 100 million doses by March, but it actually delivered less than 40 million doses. “This has failed Nigeria and many countries,” Mr. Erondu said [trong việc tiêm chủng]”. America is part of the problem. The Trump administration has refused to sign on to COVAX, a move that reflects its narrow “America First” philosophy. The Trump administration at the time either didn’t understand, or didn’t care, that vaccinating poor countries also helped protect rich countries. After all, the virus doesn’t care about borders. Mr. Biden reversed the decision in February. The administration has committed $4 billion in cash, making the US the largest donor of COVAX, albeit somewhat belatedly. In a parallel move, Mr. Biden also signaled support for a controversial proposal to give the WTO a copyright exemption for a Covid-19 vaccine. In theory, the decision would allow any manufacturer in any country to produce doses of the vaccine. However, experts are still divided on whether the patent waiver will lead to more doses of the vaccine being shipped to countries in need. Meanwhile, many richer countries have been slow to implement their COVAX commitments. Meanwhile, strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to target unprotected populations from one area to another. Nigeria is about to become the “storm center” of Covid-19. However, this West African country may not suffer the same fate as India. Because vaccines are available. Existing mechanisms will get the vaccine to the countries that need it most. It is worth mentioning that many countries have a surplus of vaccines but do not appreciate the importance of sharing vaccines with other countries. (According to Daily Beast)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the largest immunization campaign in human history with the aim of distributing vaccine doses to 190 countries and limiting the risk of dangerous mutations. However, this project is currently racing against time. The man trying to save the world now stands in a Connecticut kindergarten, USA. He puts his laptop in front of him and sunlight is shining through the window into a crib. Benjamin Schreiber is barefoot and his hair is messy. The 46-year-old seems to have just woken up, but almost every day, he gets up from sunrise. His job is one of the most important and difficult in the world. As the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Deputy Head of Immunization Team (UNICEF), Schreiber is responsible for ensuring that 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine reach people in the poorest countries, the most distant. In an online meeting with colleagues in Germany, Panama and Haiti, Schreiber discussed his “headache” for the day: The situation is stagnant in two countries. Countries that buy the most Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: Duke Global Health Innovation Center Referring to a country where outsiders are difficult to reach, Schreiber said: “It is not clear how things are going”. In the remaining country – Haiti, the first potential vaccine shipment has been delayed. The vaccination team appears to be ready, but political and social issues are hindering shipping. Fuel in Haiti is expensive, roads are poor, budgets are miscalculated. Many people do not believe in Western aid, others do not understand Covid-19. There are discussions like this every day Schreiber. On a small scale, it often involves questions about the proper way to cool vaccines, about ingenuity in dealing with governments. However, at the core of the matter has always been global justice. The new strain corona virus has spread to every continent and infected at least 128 million people. It has ruined economies and destroyed families. Up to now, a global medical emergency has been in effect for more than a year. Citizens in some developed countries have been protected from the corona virus and many others in Africa, Asia and Latin America are still waiting to be vaccinated. Carrying vaccines to remote areas in Nepal. Photo: SPIEGEL To date, nearly 600 million doses of the vaccine have been used around the world. However, nearly two-thirds of them are used in six countries. About 60% of Israelis, less than half of Britons and one-tenth of Germans have been vaccinated at least once. In Namibia, where a population of more than 2 million people, less than 1,500 people have been vaccinated. In some other countries, no one has been vaccinated yet. Earlier this year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of a “moral disaster”. An effort has been made to prevent that disaster. A global mechanism, called COVAX, was born to support the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to countries. WHO launched the initiative a year ago and a vaccine consortium called GAVI and the Alliance for Pandemic Readiness Innovation (CEPI) also joined. Almost every country in the world participates in COVAX. Many countries and regions have attempted to smooth the infection curve of Covid-19. Photo: John Hopkins University COVAX’s goal is that 92 of the poorest member countries get vaccines as fast as 98 rich countries. The rich countries pay more for the initiative and the poorest countries get discounts or free vaccinations, with each country vaccinating a fifth of its population by the end of the year. It is UNICEF’s responsibility to ensure that vaccines reach their destination. The new strain corona virus is constantly changing. Most changes do not affect the degree of danger posed by the virus, but some mutations, like the strains that occurred in Brazil and the US, do. And the more the number of countries experiencing uncontrolled outbreaks, the more likely the world will have to deal with the next mutation. So how do you vaccinate those most threatened, such as the elderly, the sick, and health care workers around the world? How can COVAX achieve its ambitious goals? Graph of increasing Covid-19 cases among countries. Photo: Bloomberg A group of German magazine Der Spiegel reporters have followed the vaccine around the world. They went to vaccine factories in India, to warehouses in Copenhagen, Denmark. It all goes to the end: The vaccine is delivered to health workers in Malawi, who received their first shot in March. The reporters also witnessed a German at a kindergarten. in the US to plan vaccine distribution. Schreiber has been with UNICEF for 8 years. His biggest challenge last year, he said, was preparing nations for a short period of time. COVAX’s goal is to ship about 2 billion doses of vaccine by the end of this year, corresponding to about 850 tons of vaccine per month and 1 billion syringes. Thousands of cooling boxes have to be transported to the most remote corners of the world by jeeps, boats, drones and even donkeys. Even in normal years, UNICEF vaccinates nearly every child around the world. However, UNICEF has never faced a global pandemic. The Republic of Seychelles is currently leading the world because there are enough vaccines for 63.1% of the population. Photo: Bloomberg. Immunization campaigns are usually planned many years in advance, but this time only a few months. Vaccine recipients are diverse, some have been successful, some have failed, some have only a few hundred thousand people, some have more than a billion. Countries were asked by UNICEF to explain in writing how they intend to manage the logistics of vaccinations. Schreiber read over 100 of these lengthy plans, mostly twice. He corrects and makes suggestions for improvements. Most of the time, things go well, but sometimes it doesn’t. The governments of Tanzania, Eritrea and Madagascar are still debating that Covid-19 is a dangerous disease. However, the effort paid off. On February 24, the first shipment of COVAX landed in Ghana. The first shipment to Haiti is also planned. By the end of March, UNICEF had distributed 20 million doses of the vaccine to 47 countries.