Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · PalThink for Strategic Studies · 2020
Omar Shaban argues that access to COVID-19 vaccines is becoming a new arena of international competition, as the pandemic’s 55 million cases and more than 1.3 million deaths combine with severe economic disruption. He notes that 6.4 billion doses had already been purchased and another 3.2 billion were under negotiation or reserved, implying global demand for more than 10 billion doses at a cost exceeding $100 billion, while production capacity remains limited. He highlights Gavi’s COVAX mechanism, which includes 172 countries—80 willing to finance and 92 poorer countries needing support—and cites an agreement to supply 100 million doses at an average of $3 per dose, with 300 million more available on the same terms. He stresses that the Palestinian territories fall within the lower-middle-income category eligible for support and calls on Palestinian health authorities to contact Gavi to secure vaccines.
Omar Shaban, December 2020: The next conflict is over COVID-19 vaccines, and COVAX is key to securing a Palestinian share.
The prestigious newspaper *The Economist* predicted in a forward-looking article for the year 2021 that the struggle to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine would be one of the arenas of intense competition and conflict among states. With the spread of the pandemic across the world and the enormous increase in the number of infections and deaths (55 million cases and more than 1.3 million deaths), in addition to the paralysis the pandemic caused to the global economy and the inability of economies, even advanced ones, to bear its repercussions, and with confirmed news that health laboratories in developed countries had approved the validity of vaccines that were rapidly developed in laboratories (9 vaccines currently approved and 9 others still under trial), some countries began their frantic race to obtain the required vaccines first and in quantities suitable for them. Just as happened at the beginning of the virus’s emergence earlier this year, with a frantic and at times unethical struggle to obtain sanitizing materials, protective clothing, and medical equipment such as intensive care units, ventilators, and others, there are fears that the race to secure vaccines, much of which is taking place in secret, will deprive poor countries and peoples that lack the financial, security, and political resources needed to obtain them. In a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation, Duke University estimated that 6.4 billion doses of potential vaccines had already been purchased, and that another 3.2 billion doses were either under negotiation or reserved as “optional orders for concluded deals.” This means that the world needs more than 10 billion doses of vaccines, with the cost of obtaining them estimated at more than $100 billion. Certainly, the companies manufacturing the approved vaccines do not have the capacity to produce this enormous number of doses quickly; this may take months, if not many years. States decided that the vaccine would first be given to healthcare workers, the elderly, and those suffering from chronic diseases.
## The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi)
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi) https://www.gavi.org/, which was established in 2000 to help provide the required immunizations for children in poor countries and conflict areas, took the initiative to form the “COVAX” alliance, an international program managed by the Global Alliance (Gavi) in cooperation with international organizations and some major companies that have social responsibility funds, to provide vaccine doses to poor countries and regions and those in conflict situations. Gavi says that the global vaccine situation currently involves 200 research projects to produce a coronavirus vaccine. According to the international alliance (Gavi), the vaccines approaching approval, although they are at different experimental stages, are: Inovio vaccine (United States of America), Moderna vaccine (United States of America), CureVac vaccine (Germany), the joint vaccine between the Pasteur Institute/Merck/Themis (France/United States of America/Austria), AstraZeneca vaccine (Oxford University), Hong Kong University vaccine, Novavax vaccine (United States of America), Clover Biopharmaceuticals vaccine (China), and the University of Queensland vaccine (Australia).
Dozens of countries signed onto the “COVAX” program managed by the international alliance (Gavi) to ensure obtaining the vaccines they require on the one hand, and to help provide them to poor regions on the other. A total of 172 countries are participating in the COVAX program, including 80 countries that expressed their readiness to contribute financially and 92 poor countries in need of assistance from the “COVAX” program. The international alliance (Gavi) works with vaccine manufacturers in order to enable countries around the world to obtain safe and effective vaccines fairly as soon as they are licensed and approved. One of the achievements of the COVAX program was signing an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (owner of Microsoft) to provide 100 million doses at an average cost of $3 per dose. The agreement also includes obtaining an additional 300 million doses under the same conditions. The Global Alliance (Gavi) had launched an advance market commitment program in order to ensure obtaining an appropriate share from vaccine manufacturers. It succeeded in raising $600 million out of a total of $1 billion. The Gavi website lists the names of the countries that expressed readiness to help with funding, including some Arab states such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, and Iraq. The countries that will benefit from this program were also classified into three categories:
1. Low-income countries.
2. Lower-middle-income countries and territories.
3. Other countries eligible for support from the International Development Association.
Fortunately, the Palestinian territories (the West Bank and Gaza) are included within the second classification, countries and territories of lower-middle income. I call on the Palestinian health authorities to contact the international alliance (Gavi) to ensure obtaining the vaccine. To contact the international alliance:
https://www.gavi.org/
Topic: International Economy — Covid-19 vaccines · global competition · pandemic economy — Original source