Why is Argentina not one of the beneficiaries of …

The United States government has decided to buy 500 million doses from the Pfizer laboratory to give them to countries that do not have access to vaccines against the coronavirus. The way he chose to distribute them is through the Covax mechanism, approved by the World Health Organization. Delivery would take place in two stages, with 200 million before the end of the year and 300 in 2021.

Beyond the attention paid to the news in the main media, stressing that the doses come from Pfizer and that Argentina will not receive them, in this case the brand of vaccines has nothing to do with the countries chosen to send them.

Covax divides participating countries into two categories: “self-funded” and “funded”. The former pay for the vaccines they will receive and the latter benefit from the Advance Market Commitment (CAM) which finances their participation.

Those receiving the aid are 92 countries, and they will be precisely the destination of the vaccines donated by the United States.

Bolivia is the only South American country to make this list, and it is joined by Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti and El Salvador among Latin Americans.

Countries that pay for their vaccines

In general, Self-funded countries, including Argentina, have supported their immunization plans through direct bilateral agreements with each of the producing laboratories. A bet that was convenient if we look at the evolution of vaccination in each of these countries and the very low respect by Covax of the amounts committed.

At this stage, it should be recalled that the low efficiency of the multilateral mechanism resulted from the lack of delivery of vaccine producers, who did not respect their bilateral commitments with the sole exceptions of the United States, Great Britain and Israel.

To guarantee this privilege, The United States has banned not only the export of Covid-19 vaccines, but also all supplies needed to produce them in other countries, which caused delays around the world, such as the one suffered by the packaging in Mexico of the AstraZeneca product made in Argentina.

The arrival of Joe Biden to the presidency has little changed the scenario, but the advance of vaccination in the United States is starting to make available part of its production capacity. For this reason, the new president has decided to start competing with Russia and China in the poor and middle countries’ market, so far abandoned by North American companies.

The complete list of the 92 beneficiary countries

Low income: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, North Korea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Yemen.

Lower middle income: Angola, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Mauritania, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, East Timor, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza Strip, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Other countries selected by the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA): Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Kosovo, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga, Tuvalu.