Recent data suggest that rich countries may already have provided the majority of next-generation COVID vaccines.
Less than half (49 percent) of the 2.1 billion donations of COVID vaccines promised to poorer G7 countries have been delivered, according to new figures released today by Oxfam and the People’s Alliance for Vaccines.
On the eve of this year’s G-7 summit in the German Alps, a new analysis shows that if the missing donations were shared in 2021, it could be enough to save nearly 600,000 lives in countries. low- and middle-income, which is equivalent to one every minute.
The worst offenders are the United Kingdom and Canada, which have failed to deliver close to the promised number of vaccines. Only 39 percent of the 100 million doses that the United Kingdom has promised to deliver by the end of this month have actually been delivered. Although the deadline for fulfilling their respective commitments is not the end of the year, only 30% of Canada’s 50.7 million doses and 46% of the 1.2 billion promised by the United States have been delivered. The so-called “Europe Team” collectively delivered only 56% of the 700 million doses promised by mid-2022, and Japan delivered 64% of the 60 million doses it said it would send.
The latest Airfinity data suggests that rich nations may have already provided more than half (55 percent) of the new generation of Omicron-specific mRNA COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech. This is even before they are approved for use, which makes it likely that many developing countries will remain in the back of the queue again.
Max Lawson, Oxfam’s head of inequality policy and co-chair of the People’s Alliance for Vaccines, said: “At every level, rich nations have betrayed poor countries en masse when it comes to COVID vaccines. First, they accumulated all the supplies for themselves, then promised to donate their remains, but hundreds of millions of these doses never materialized.
“Rich nations are already accumulating a new generation of specific Omicron vaccines, while people in poorer countries will be forced to continue to face new variants of vaccines that are increasingly ineffective. The only way to fix this is to give nations the right to make their own, not to rely on rich countries to deliver doses they no longer need and deliver too late for the millions who have died. “
New data released yesterday by Imperial College London shows that 599,300 deaths could have been prevented in 2021 if 40% of people in all countries had been fully vaccinated. The billions of missing doses that the G7 countries have failed to deliver would be enough to reach this goal. Almost all of these preventable deaths were in low- and middle-income countries.
To date, only 14% of people in low-income countries and 18% of people on the African continent are fully vaccinated – far from the goal of having 70% coverage in all nations by the middle of the year. Despite such low vaccine coverage, Imperial College’s study found that COVID vaccines saved 446,400 lives in Africa and 180,300 in low-income countries.
At the same time, rich nations, led by the EU and the United Kingdom, have imposed a text in the WTO that has failed to give up intellectual property on vaccines, treatments and technologies that would allow developing countries to produce their own generic vaccines. Instead, the text adds even more bureaucratic hurdles and further protects the highly profitable monopolies of companies such as Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna. The People’s Vaccine Alliance calls on all countries facing a shortage of vaccines, tests and treatments to save lives and end the pandemic, using all available flexible trade rules and circumventing WTO rules if necessary. They say the G7 and other rich countries should not hinder them.
Campaign groups also say that the pattern of leaving developing countries to rely on donations to vaccinate people is completely wrong and actually leads to frustration and mistrust.
Julia Cosgue, a political adviser at The People’s Vaccine Alliance, said: “Hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved in Africa through vaccines, but so many more deaths could have been prevented. Vaccination programs worked best when doses arrived on time, allowing governments to plan and increase prevalence. But many countries waited a year to receive their first doses. When the doses finally arrived, they came at once, often close to the expiration date, which is completely unmanageable and unfair for countries that already have difficulties in health systems.
“Developing countries do not want to wait for the leftovers, they want reliability and dignity to be able to produce their own doses. It is a disgrace that rich countries have halted intellectual property negotiations to expand vaccine production around the world so that pharmaceutical corporations can maximize profits while people die without access. To add insult to the injury, they couldn’t even bother to provide timely access to doses they didn’t even need.
“Rich countries have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to act in the public interest of everyone, everywhere – it is time for the leaders of the global south to take matters into their own hands. We hope that governments will do whatever it takes to protect their populations – whether it’s using flexibility in global intellectual property rules or circumventing them to save lives. Rich countries should not stand in their way. “
Previous research by the People’s Vaccine Alliance has found that vaccine monopolies make vaccination 5 times more expensive in the world, while Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech earn more than $ 1,000 each second from COVID vaccines.
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For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact the Oxfam press center at: +44 (0) 7748 761999 media.unit@oxfam.org.uk
Notes to editors:
On Saturday, June 25, from 10.30 am local time in Munich will be an opportunity to take pictures of Oxfam “Big Heads”. Campaigners dressed as G-7 leaders in travel gear will have to choose the right path to fight the COVID pandemic, on a large two-way street, to “Corporate Profits” or “Saving Lives.” For more information, please see Media Tips:
Additional notes for editors, including all datasheets available here:
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