Poorest countries will not have widespread access to vaccines until 2023, report warns

Anne Gulland global health security correspondent 27 January 2021 6:30am GMT Coronavirus Article Bar with counter .. Production delays could mean that many of the world’s poorest countries

will not have widespread access to coronavirus vaccines before 2023, a new analysis has found. A report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) sets out what it describes as “bleak”

timelines for the roll out of global vaccination programmes, warning that production will be the main hurdle as many of the richest nations have snapped up more vaccines than they need. 

Last year the People’s Vaccine Alliance - a coalition of charities including Oxfam and Amnesty International - warned that the world’s richest countries had bought up enough doses of vaccine

to immunise their populations three times over. And last week the head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the world was facing a “catastrophic moral

failure” for not ensuring equitable access to vaccines. The EIU report says that countries including the UK, the US and most of the European Union will have vaccinated their priority groups

- health workers and older people - by mid March this year. Middle income countries such as Russia and China - which have developed their own vaccines - could be on a similar schedule to

richer economies, with mass immunisation completed by mid-2022.  Other middle-income countries, including Mexico and Brazil, have been promised supplies in return for running clinical trials

or housing production factories. This should give them early access to doses for priority groups, the report says. However, countries that are relying on Covax, the global initiative led by

WHO, to deliver vaccines will receive supplies more slowly, particularly if delays in production and delivery to richer countries push back delivery dates for poorer nations, the report

warns. The UK has already experienced problems with vaccine supply, holding up its own vaccination programme.  In the poorest countries widespread vaccination coverage will not be achieved

before 2023, “if at all”, the report warns.  Agathe Demarais, the Economist Intelligence Unit global forecasting director, said: “The contrast between rich countries and poorer ones is

stark. Most developing countries will not have widespread access to the shots before 2023 at the earliest. "Some of these countries - particularly poorer ones with a young demographic

profile - may well lose the motivation to distribute vaccines, especially if the disease has spread widely or if the associated costs prove too high.” However, in an interview with the

Telegraph on Sunday Dr Richard Hatchett, chief executive of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a body that funds vaccine development and a key partner in the Covax

initiative, was more upbeat.  He said Covax was on track to deliver two billion doses of vaccine to developing countries, despite a “feeding frenzy” by richer nations.  “I think we're

on track to begin rolling out vaccine [to the developing world], initially in small quantities in February, but with increasing roll out over the first half of the year,” he added. “I think

we are on track to hit or perhaps even exceed our targets.” _PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY BY LEARNING MORE ABOUT GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY_