From the earliest stages of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (OMS) has identified the need for a coordinated approach to ensure that everyone, not just people living in rich countries, are adequately protected against the virus as the disease spreads rapidly. Vaccination represents a key part of the response to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
Several countries have established very clear objectives for their vaccination campaigns, but in the rest of the world the picture is still not clear, so here is a summary of how the vaccination process against Covid-19 is going in the world:
So far, more than 300 million doses have been administered in nearly 100 countries. Here you can see more on how the vaccination plan is developing by country.
When will countries achieve widespread vaccination coverage?
EIU research predicts that two of the world's vaccine-producing powerhouses, China and India, may not have vaccinated their entire populations until the end of 2022. These data took into account vaccine supply, availability of health care workers, logistics and financing.
Which vaccine has had the greatest impact?
India's success as a producer of vaccines to combat covid-19 is due in part to one man, Adar Poonawalla. His company, the Serum Institute of India, is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines.. In January, the first such vaccine, developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca, was made available in India. The Poonawalla-based company currently produces 2.4 million doses of the Oxford vaccine per day. Below we can see the number of countries using each type of vaccine.
Vaccines are being developed and manufactured faster than ever before, although the task (inoculating 7.7 billion people) is enormous and has never been attempted before.
Learn about the five main challenges facing COVAX
1) Export control: the weakest link?
Multiple export control formulas can limit their supply. Therefore, poorer countries will have a much better chance of protecting their citizens if they are able to manufacture vaccines.
2) It is not easy to get vaccines to those who need them.
Although all countries that are part of the COVAX mechanism have the infrastructure in place to remove vaccine pallets from cargo planes and transport them to refrigerated warehouses, the next steps can be more complicated. Countries such as West Africa, for example, have had difficulty mustering the resources needed to distribute the doses throughout their territory and in the cities and towns where they are needed.
3) Deployment in the poorest countries requires more funds.
To continue the supply of vaccines through 2021 to its 190 members, COVAX needs at least $3.2 billion. The faster this target is reached, the sooner the vaccines can be administered.
4) Wealthier countries must share vaccines
COVAX competes directly with countries that make direct bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies, which puts additional pressure on the available supply of COVID-19 vaccines. In turn, rich countries have a surplus of doses.
5) Doubts about vaccination, a constant cause for concern.
Although vaccination has been shown to save lives, resistance to vaccination is a problem that affects all countries and remains an ongoing obstacle. This difficulty is due, in part, to the large amount of misinformation surrounding all aspects of Covid-19, which was already a cause for concern even before the global health emergency was declared.
