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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a vial of AstraZeneca vaccine during a visit to a coronavirus vaccination center at the Health and Well-being Center in Orpington, south-east London on Monday, February 15, 2021 ( Credit: Jeremy Selwyn / Pool Photo via AP)
TORONTO (AP) – The World Health Organization has granted emergency clearance for AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, an initiative that is expected to allow UN agency partners to send millions of doses to countries as part of a UN-backed program to tame the pandemic.
In a statement on Monday, the WHO said it was phasing out AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and South Korean company AstraZeneca-SKBio.
The WHO green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine is only the second the United Nations health agency has issued after authorizing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December. Monday’s announcement is expected to trigger the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that are committed to the UN-backed COVAX effort, which aims to provide vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable people.
“Countries without access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start immunizing their health workers and populations at risk,” said Dr Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and health products.
The coronavirus has infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million. But many countries have yet to launch vaccination programs, and even wealthy countries are facing vaccine dose shortages as manufacturers scramble to ramp up production.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has already been authorized in more than 50 countries, including Great Britain, India, Argentina and Mexico. It is cheaper and easier to handle than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires cold storage which is not common in many developing countries. Both vaccines require two injections per person, weeks apart.
Last week, WHO vaccine experts recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 18, including in countries that have detected variants of COVID-19.
But this was contrary to the recommendation of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which stated that countries which had identified a viral variant first seen in South Africa should be “careful” in their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, suggesting that other vaccines be given priority instead.
The AstraZeneca vaccine constitutes the bulk of the COVAX stockpile and concerns were recently raised after an early study suggested that it may not prevent mild and moderate illness caused by the variant first seen in South Africa. South. Last week, South Africa scaled back its planned deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine, opting instead to use an unlicensed vaccine from Johnson & Johnson for its health workers.
COVAX has already missed its own target of starting coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries at the same time vaccines have been rolled out in rich countries. Many developing countries have rushed in recent weeks to sign their own private deals to buy vaccines, unwilling to wait for COVAX.
WHO and its partners, including the GAVI vaccine alliance, have not specified which countries will receive the first doses of COVAX. But an initial plan showed that a handful of wealthy countries that have signed multiple private vaccine deals, including Canada, South Korea and New Zealand, should also receive early doses of COVAX.
Some public health experts called this “very problematic” and attributed it to the flawed design of COVAX, which allowed donor countries to double down on purchasing vaccines from the program while signing their own trade deals.
“Canada has ordered enough doses to supply its population about five times as much and now it is looking to accept its share of doses of COVAX, which would otherwise be given to poor countries,” said Anna Marriott, head of health policy for Oxfam International.
WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan has said wealthy countries that have signed up to receive COVAX vaccines will not have their applications rejected.
“The COVAX installation is not going to penalize countries,” she said in early February.
After pledging more than $ 400 million to COVAX last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country still intends to be vaccinated with COVAX.
Marriott said wealthy countries planning to take doses of COVAX should reconsider their intentions, given their earlier calls to support the goal of the effort of equal access to vaccines for all nations around the world. , rich or poor.
“It sounds pretty hypocritical,” she says. “Rich countries with their own supplies should make the right call and not take vaccines from countries which are really in dire straits.”
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This story corrects for the fact that doses will be shipped by WHO partners and not AstraZeneca partners.
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Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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