GLOBAL Covid-19 vaccine inequality is easily summed up in the fact that the 45% of  the 1.25 available  billion doses wordlwide have been administered in 49 high-income countries but only 0.3% of the vaccine has reached  the world’s 25 poorest countries.

Director-general of World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus presented the sobering data, calling the situation a moral failure.

WHO had warned of such disparity since the vaccines were still in development.

The people in high-income countries who have received the shots account for 16% of the global population.

Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Friday that only 0.3% of the vaccines were administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, which are home to 9% of the world’s population, adding that the vaccine inequity was unacceptable.

In Malaysia, coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Khairy Jamaluddin emphasised the imbalance in distribution earlier this week when he said that the national immunisation programme would be delayed due to a shortage of vaccines.

Calling it an act of injustice, Khairy said wealthy nations had bought enough shots to vaccinate their citizens up to five times over.

Malaysia is set to receive 3.52 million doses of vaccine this month. More than 1.7 million people in the counry have received the jabs, 600,000 of them the full two doses.

Putrajaya has said that it had secured more than 60 million doses, enough for 110% of the population, but it is still waiting for delivery.

The global supply chain has seen challenges in the form of vaccine nationalism, inequity and supply bottleneck as manufacturers grapple with shortage of raw materials and try to scale up  production to meet unprecedented demand.

Ghebreyesus had previously said vaccine nationalism would prolong the pandemic, economic turmoil, restrictions on travel and trade, and increase the chances of a variant emerging that was vaccine resistant.

“But for now, the global supply of vaccines is limited, and we have an ethical, epidemiological and economic imperative to deploy vaccines as equitably as possible,” he said.

By September 2020, countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and European Union member states had hedged their bets by pre-ordering vaccines that were in development.A

Bloomberg’s analysis of more than 80 agreements between vaccine producers and countries shows Canada, the UK and Australia would have enough doses reserved to inoculate their populations multiple times over upon delivery of the shots.

Meanwhile, the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition including Oxfam, Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS and Global Justice Now, said developed nations that were home to 14% of the world’s population had purchased 53% of the total stocks of the most promising vaccines as of November 2020.

They raised concerns that  67 low and lower middle-income countries may be at risk of  being left behind with many only being able to get their supply through the COVAX (Covid-19 vaccines global access) facility.

Malaysia signed its first deal with Pfizer Inc for 12.8 million doses of vaccine on November 24. Later that year, it entered into another deal with AstraZeneca.  

It took delivery of its first batch of vaccines consisting of 312,390 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in February this year.

Ghebreyesus had said the promise of equitable access was at serious risk, as the first vaccines were being deployed.
https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-148th-session-of-the-executive-board

“More than 39 million doses of vaccine have now been administered in at least 49 high-income countries. Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest-income country. Not 25 million; not 25 thousand; just 25,” he said.

“I need to be blunt: the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure – and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”

Even as they speak the language of equitable access, some countries and companies continue to prioritiSe bilateral deals, going around COVAX, driving up prices and attempting to jump to the front of the queue. This is wrong.”

He added that 44 bilateral deals were signed last year and more followed this year.

Most vaccine manufacturers have prioritised regulatory approval in rich countries where the profits are highest, rather than submitting full dossiers to WHO, he said.

“Ultimately, these actions will only prolong the pandemic, the restrictions needed to contain it, and human and economic suffering.”

Vaccine equity is not just a moral imperative, it is a strategic and economic imperative,” he added.

According to Bloomberg data, as of May 9, wealthier countries were getting vaccinated 25 times faster than the poorest. The 27 wealthiest countries had 35.2% of the total vaccinations.

The US saw over 40.1%  vaccination coverage while the UK had 39.2%. Malaysia, on the contrary, was only at about 2.7%. – May 10, 2021.