Advertisement
Coronavirus variants add to Covax challenge of fair vaccine distribution
- Biggest vaccination programme in history is on track, says development chief, but the challenges are huge with no time to lose
- Rise of variant strains of the virus is adding to the complexity but no reason yet to change delivery plans
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
2
A global plan for fair Covid-19 vaccine distribution is on track to deliver 2 billion doses or more this year, but the huge task is facing a number of challenges, including emerging virus variants and getting production and local roll-outs up to speed.
“It’s an immense challenge across multiple dimensions and multiple scales just to roll out what is effectively the largest vaccination programme in the history of the world,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, head of the vaccine development arm of the Covax Facility equitable distribution programme. “Now, bring the variants into that and the complexity increases even further.”
Hatchett is CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) which finances and coordinates vaccine development for emerging infectious diseases, and is running the Covax programme along with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the World Health Organization.
As vaccine roll-outs have started in some countries, the emergence of several more transmissible variants of the virus which causes Covid-19 have raised concerns about their potential to evade available vaccines.
The potential problem was highlighted by recent results from US firm Novavax, maker of one of 11 vaccine candidates backed by CEPI over the past year with hopes that hundreds of millions of its doses can supply the Covax scheme and reach people in the poorest countries.
Advertisement