But these spats amongst wealthy countries are only one part of the problem, and are likely to abate once production increases. A report from the Intelligence Unit at the Economist predicts that most of Europe, the UK and US will have widespread vaccination coverage by the end of 2021, with the remainder of the advanced economies likely to have coverage by mid-2022.
For the countries that cannot afford to pay, it is a different story. “[W]idespread vaccination coverage will not be achieved before 2023, if it happens at all” is the likely scenario for developing countries, according to the report.
This is because COVID-19 vaccines, and the companies competing to make them, are not charitable endeavours. The aim is to make money by selling to those who can pay. The vaccine industry pre-COVID was already estimated to be worth US$35 billion, and it will get a welcome boost from COVID-19. Pfizer alone is expected to make US$15 billion this year from its vaccine. To maximise these profits, supplies will go to the highest bidders.
So fucked that poorer countries aren’t getting vaccinated until 2 years after the rich countries are.
Is this according to the same experts who said that western countries were best prepared for a pandemic? Because at least in Germany, the vaccination campaign is a huge failure so far.
At least China is donating a lot of vaccines to developing countries.
Did China develop their own vaccine, or are they buying doses of pfizer/moderna/oxford to donate? It would be a be a big deal if someone could put out a patent-free vaccine like Oxford was planning before the Gates foundation stepped in.
China has vaccines made by SinoVac and CanSino. Their vaccines have lower reported percent effectiveness compared to what Pfizer or Moderna report, and IIRC use more traditional vaccination pathways compared to the RNA vaccines, but hey, more players in the game is good, and China does plan on donating a lot of them primarily to developing countries.
What is the patent situation with those? I’m really ignorant about this, but it seems like patents are playing a big role in keeping the vaccines from developing countries.
I don’t know the details unfortunately.
China has also pledged much of its vaccines to other countries in the global south, since they’ve largely eradicated covid within their borders as of fall last year.
