Vaccine Inequity and Nationalism: Why is it bad?
While the Covid-19 pandemic is very much still present in our daily lives, countries are now starting to roll out giving vaccines to its citizen in attempts to combat the virus once and for all. With differences in ways in developing the vaccines, ranging from using the whole virus or bacterium, using parts of the virus that triggers the immune system, or just merely the genetic material, numerous countries have established their own vaccines or chosen certain types of vaccines considered to suit their people’s needs the best. In The Netherlands, the approved types of vaccines are Moderna, BioNTech/Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, and Janssen.
However, despite the efforts of vaccinating their own people as possible, and make sure that vaccinations happen globally to fight the pandemic altogether, it is undoubted that the distribution of the vaccines is highly unequal. First-world countries are buying vaccines in bulk while emerging countries are left behind, even though the latter has more people needed to be covered. The European Union, for example, ordered 1,6 billion doses for its adult population of around 375 million. As the vaccines mostly require two doses except for the 200 million single-shot vaccines of Janssen, the orders can cover just under 900 million people. It will create a surplus of around 525 million full vaccinations (Cohen, 2021). Likewise, the UK ordered 219 million full vaccinations (two shots) for its 54 million adults, with a surplus of 165 million (Cohen, 2021). Canada even had enough Covid-19 vaccines secured to protect four times its actual population size (Rastello & Bolongnaro, 2020).
While for these countries, it is possible to ramp up their vaccination schedule in hopes to open up their countries back to normality once again, the majority of poorer nations are struggling to order the vaccines, let alone start giving them out to their people. The prices of the vaccinations are not cheap either, ranging from 19.59USD (BioNTech/Pfizer) to 37USD (Moderna), while normal vaccines usually cost 2USD per dose (Fallah, 2021). At this price range, some countries have no options but to buy it by batches and prioritizing the age groups considered the most critical first, making the vaccinations happen in a relatively lower phase. Moreover, with the richer nations dominating their vaccination orders, it will take years for the rest of the world to fully recover from the pandemic by achieving global herd immunity.
This new phenomenon is described by experts as vaccine nationalism. It occurs when government sign agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers to supply their own population with vaccines ahead of them becoming available for other countries (Khan, 2021). As mentioned above, countries like UK, Japan, and the US secured vaccination doses not only ahead of the release, but also in the amount that is actually way bigger than the numbers of people who need to be vaccinated in their country. When only a small percentage of countries can be vaccinated, then the virus will continue to spread around the non-vaccinated countries, and further increase the chance of new mutations keep on coming, affecting ultimately everyone in the world, no matter rich or poor.
The WHO has expressed its concerns over this matter and created COVAX, a global facility aimed to pull donations from rich developed countries, philanthropists, and private donors together used to fund the research, development, and manufacture of vaccines. The vaccines can then be made available to the countries struggling with financial means to pay. This way, the distribution of the vaccines can be more balance between countries, making sure that everyone gets vaccinated with a similar phase, across the globe, as it is known that the pandemic does not only affect certain countries, and therefore must be dealt in a collective approach that will benefit everyone. COVAX also benefits all parties, be it the richer countries, poor countries, and even the pharmaceutical manufacturers, by ensuring that everyone will have the same access to the approved vaccinations as needed by their people.
In the end, it is up to the conscience of each party to be willing to work together as part of COVAX, understanding that ending the pandemic is work to be done globally, as no country is an island, each and every one of us is ultimately connected to one another, and it is our responsibility to take part into the collective approach of a balanced distribution of vaccines globally to save humans lives, regardless of nations, countries, and different economic and political views.
REFERENCE
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/the-race-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-explained
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/coronavirus-vaccinatie/soorten-coronavaccins
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-07/canada-has-reserved-more-vaccine-doses-per-person-than-anywhere (Rastello & Bolongnaro, 2020)
https://theconversation.com/no-country-is-an-island-collective-approach-to-covid-19-vaccines-is-the-only-way-to-go-153200 (Fallah, 2021)
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/2/7/what-is-vaccine-nationalism-and-why-is-it-so-harmful (Khan, 2021)
PHOTO CREDIT
https://unsplash.com/photos/mAGZNECMcUg
Photo by Daniel Schuldi