World
BFA report: Solving the uneven distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is of grave importance
By Ma Miaomiao  ·  2021-07-29  ·   Source: Web Exclusive

 

A press conference is held in Beijing on July 29 for the release a report on the global use of COVID-19 vaccines (COURTESY PHOTO)   

COVID-19 vaccines are among the most quickly-developed vaccines in all of human history, said Li Baodong, Secretary General of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), when addressing a press conference held for the release of a report on the global use of COVID-19 vaccines on July 29. "Although their development was urgent, the safety of the vaccines has been effectively guaranteed," Li said.

"It's also a remarkable change that emerging countries like China have joined in emergency vaccine development. In this global race to develop vaccines, China and Russia are among the top players," Li said, adding that India, as a major developer of generic drugs, has also played its part by processing and producing vaccines from the EU and the U.S.

As of July 20, 3.7 billion doses of vaccine had been administered globally, with 26.5 percent of the global population receiving at least one dose, according to Our World in Data, an online project of the Global Change Data Lab.

 

Li Baodong, Secretary General of the Boao Forum for Asia, addresses a press conference held in Beijing on July 29 for the release a report on the global use of COVID-19 vaccines (COURTESY PHOTO) 

However, now that the introduction of vaccines has begun and their obvious effects on curbing the pandemic are apparent, how to solve the uneven distribution of vaccines on a global scale has become of grave importance to the international community.

For example, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) in April, vaccines already administered in Africa account for less than 2 percent of the world total. And according to a report from ABC News in the U.S., an average of only 0.9 percent of the populations of low-income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

"The commitments made by some countries and international organizations to provide vaccine assistance to developing countries, however, have yet to be fully translated into reality," Li said, adding that some have played up their contributions to fighting against the pandemic, with little actually having been achieved.

The U.S. has stockpiled a huge quantity of vaccines, yet there is a gap between its capacity to deliver vaccines to other countries, and how many it has actually delivered. According to researchers from Duke Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University in the U.S., by the end of July, the U.S. may have a surplus of 200 million doses or more.

On July 2, AP News reported that the U.S. had shipped fewer than 24 million doses of vaccines to recipient countries and regions in Asia, Central and South America, and Africa, even though the Biden administration had originally set a goal of providing 80 million doses by the end of June.

The Washington Post on July 13 published an article stating millions of surplus vaccines that were supposed to be shipped to the other countries were thrown away after reaching their expiration dates.

The recently-concluded Group of Seven Leaders' (G7) Summit on June 13 promised to donate 1 billion doses of vaccine to poor countries by the end of 2022. However, this is still far below the global demand. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that leaders of G7 countries need to set a target of having 70 percent of the world’s population vaccinated, and that their current commitment is insufficient to achieve this goal.

According to the BFA report, China's vaccine aid and exports have exceeded the total of all other countries, with developing countries constituting the primary export destinations. China has exported 227 percent more doses than Europe, and 84 times more than the U.S.

In May 2020, at the opening ceremony of the 73rd World Health Assembly, Chinese President Xi Jinping became the first world leader to announce that China would make its vaccines available to the world as a "global public good." "This will be China's contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries," Xi told the assembly via video-link.

"As of July, China has provided more than 500 million doses of vaccines and concentrates to more than 100 countries and international organizations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on July 12. According to the BFA report, this is the equivalent of one-sixth of the total global production of COVID-19 vaccine.

When compared with other vaccine exporting countries, China has made a far greater contribution to Latin America and Africa, the report reads. China has direct vaccine distribution channels and cooperation with 18 Latin American countries. It has donated 1 million doses and has exported nearly 280 million doses to the region. In Africa, China is exporting or donating vaccines to 31 countries.

China is also supplying developing countries with raw materials for vaccines and helping them establish independent vaccine production systems. On July 5, Egypt announced that it has already completed the first batch of 1 billion doses of China's Sinovac vaccines using local production facilities.

Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said that the existing international COVAX vaccine distribution program is not mandatory for governments. It's urgent for the international community to establish a fair and efficient international vaccine distribution mechanism to ensure the universal supply of vaccines on a global scale.

He also called for a coordination mechanism to effectively solve the problem of vaccine availability in underdeveloped countries and continue to promote the COVID-19 vaccine as a "global public good."

Copyedited by G.P. Garth

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