Advertisement
Coronavirus: it will be the biggest, fastest vaccine distribution plan ever – but can it work?
- The stakes are high for Covax, which not only aims to stop the pandemic but at the same time treat nations, rich and poor, fairly and equitably
- The programme is about US$200 million short of its US$2 billion 2020 target in finance for poorer countries
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The plan: stop the Covid-19 pandemic with the largest, fastest vaccine roll-out in history to distribute 2 billion doses across the planet in 2021.
The challenge of first developing a vaccine is being taken on by scores of pharmaceutical companies and laboratories around the world. The other step is to get financial backing to buy and fairly distribute doses amid the varying needs of rich and poor nations.
The plan to try to make it work is a programme called the Covax facility, which is backed by the World Health Organization and a public-private organisation known as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI.
Advertisement
But at the helm of Covax is another public-private partnership set up 20 years ago by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to distribute vaccines for diseases such as polio and typhoid to the poorest countries in the world. The Gates-backed Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, now finds itself with the much larger mantle of managing relationships and building trust with 184 countries, including more than 90 wealthier nations taking part in Covax.
The stakes are enormous for Geneva-based Gavi and its chief executive Seth Berkley, a US epidemiologist who founded the International Aids Vaccine Initiative. Its own documents reveal an organisation well aware of the risks in taking on the Covid-19 vaccination challenge.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x