What Is Vaccine Nationalism – Burning Issues

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Even before the end of final stage human trials or regulatory approval, several wealthier countries like Britain, France, Germany and the US have entered into pre-purchase agreements with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers.
There are fears that such advance agreements will make the initial few vaccines unaffordable and inaccessible to everyone apart from the rich countries in a world of roughly 8 billion people.

World Health Organization (WHO) warning that nations that hoard possible Covid-19 vaccines while excluding others would deepen the pandemic.
“We need to prevent vaccine nationalism. Sharing finite supplies strategically and globally is actually in each country’s national interest,”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday.

So What exactly is vaccine nationalism?

When a country manages to secure doses of vaccines for its own citizens and prioritises its own domestic markets before they are made available in other countries.
This is done through pre-purchase agreements between a government and a vaccine manufacturer.
For example, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union
Have spent tens of billions of dollars on deals with vaccine front runners such as Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Plc
Even before their effectiveness is proven.

The present race to hoard Covid-19 vaccines harks back to a similar situation that happened in 2009 during the H1N1 flu
Australia, the first country to come up with a vaccine, blocked exports while some of the wealthiest countries entered into pre-purchase agreements with several pharmaceutical companies.
The US alone obtained the right to buy 600,000 doses.
It was only when the H1N1 pandemic began to recede that developed countries offered to donate vaccine doses to poorer
However, it must be noted that H1N1 was a milder disease and its impact was far lesser than Covid-19.

The US, Britain, European Union and Japan have so far secured about 1.3 billion doses of potential Covid-19 vaccines.
The US has already agreed to buy some 800 million doses from six drug makers, and the UK 280 million from five.
Last week, the European Union negotiated with AstraZeneca for the purchase of 300 million doses of the vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University.
It has also struck a deal with French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi for 300 million doses.

Even though vaccine nationalism runs against global public health principles,
There are no provisions in international laws that prevent pre-purchase agreements.

The alternative against vaccine nationalism is global collaboration – which the WHO says can be achieved by the organisation-backed COVAX Facility mechanism.
The countries who join the initiative are assured supply of vaccines by the WHO, whenever they become successful.
So far, more than 170 countries have expressed interest.
These countries will also have supplies to protect at least 20 percent of their population.
To bring about equitable and broad access, WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and Gavi have come up with an initiative known as “Covax Facility”.
The facility aims to procure at least two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of next year for deployment and distribution mainly in the low- and middle-income countries.