How Vaccine Hoarding is Affecting the Course of the Pandemic

Amy Wilson, Year 2

On the 4^th of August 2021, The World Health Organisation set a December 2021 deadline to vaccinate 40% of the world’s population and to request High-Income Countries (HICs) to stop distributing boosters for at least two months to reroute their surpluses to other countries via COVAX, the vaccine distribution programme (Towey, R. 2021). As 2022 begins, this target has not been met.

Doctors Without Borders (2021) reports that, whilst more than 60% of the population of HICs have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, less than 3% of those in Low-Income Countries (LICs) have. This is in part due to the lack of vaccines being donated; Brown, G. (2021) states that as of November 2021, the UK has delivered 11% of what it initially promised, the EU 19%, and the US 25%. China and New Zealand have done the best of any HICs but have still only delivered half of their respective targets. This unfair distribution is being called “vaccine hoarding”, and, according to Doctors Without Borders (2021), could lead to 241 million doses being wasted by G7 and EU countries by the end of 2021 as they reach their expiration date.

This issue starts with the suppliers. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have allocated 78% and 85% respectively of their COVID-19 vaccine delivery to HICs, according to Doctors Without Borders (2021). They are also the main groups with the patent for the vaccines, leaving LICs vulnerable as they cannot make their own vaccines without being sued, and so must rely on what is donated.

India and South Africa called on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to change this, according to Dearden, N. (2021), by petitioning for Trips—an intellectual property (IP) agreement which allows pharmaceutical companies a monopoly on medical knowledge—to be partially suspended. The suspension of Trips would allow more vaccines to be produced in bulk by other manufacturers. However, there are some issues with this proposal. Given how new mRNA vaccines are, only a small number of people know how to make them and have the resources to. According to BBC News (2021), BioNTech have said that simply removing the patent won’t account for the time needed to develop the manufacturing process and validating production sites, which could lead to quality and safety issues.

Despite this, the proposal is now being supported by HICs such as the US, China, and Russia, alongside many LICs, the WHO and UNAIDS, and many bodies agree this may be the best route to boosting global supply, as was stated by Nature (2021).

Currently, the waiver has not yet gone through, and there still remains a great inequality in the distribution of vaccines. As Omicron continues to spread and a large proportion of the world’s population remains unvaccinated, Doctors Without Borders (2021) predicts almost one million lives may be lost by mid-2022, with most deaths occurring in LICs, and more variants may develop if vaccines aren’t rapidly redistributed.

Vaccine hoarding is affecting millions around the world, particularly in LICs. If the disparity is not resolved soon, it will continue to do so for months, and maybe even years, to come.

References

BBC News. (2021). Covax: How many Covid vaccines have the US and the other G7 countries pledged?. [Online]. [Accessed 17/12/2021]. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-55795297. 

Brown, G. (2021). A new Covid variant is no surprise when rich countries are hoarding vaccines. [Online]. [Accessed 17/12/2021]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/26/new-covid-variant-rich-countries-hoarding-vaccines.

David, D. (2021). Covid: The vaccine patent row explained. [Online]. [Accessed 17/12/2021]. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57016260. 

Dearden, N. (2021). Developing nations may give up on the WTO for good if it won’t budge on vaccine patents. [Online]. [Accessed 17/12/2021]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/29/developing-nations-wto-vaccine-patents-covid-britain.

Doctors Without Borders (2021). US must stop hoarding excess COVID-19 vaccine doses. [Online]. [Accessed 17/12/2021]. Available from:
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/news/us-must-stop-hoarding-excess-covid-19-vaccine-doses  

Nature. (2021). A patent waiver on COVID vaccines is right and fair. [Online]. [Accessed 17/12/2021]. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01242-1.

Towey, R. (2021). WHO criticizes wealthy nations for hoarding Covid treatments and vaccines, saying it’s prolonging pandemic. [Online]. [Accessed 17/12/2021]. Available from: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/07/who-says-wealthy-nations-are-prolonging-pandemic-by-hoarding-covid-treatments-and-vaccines.html.