The Covax shipments indicate good news about the global vaccine supply

The doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca that arrived in Accra on Wednesday mean Ghana, a low-middle-income country of 31 million people, can start vaccination next week. It’s only one step, but one big one. As described by Juliet M. Tacle, a public health physician and pediatrician in Accra, told The Washington Post that the doses mean “there is hope on the horizon.” This hope is not just for Ghana, but for many other countries hoping to receive vaccines through the Covax facility. Covax, an international effort supported by the World Health Organization, was formed last year in an effort to ensure equitable distribution of the vaccine globally. But its multilateral approach initially struggled against vaccine nationalism in rich countries, some of which refused to support it or outbid it in exchange for foolproof orders early in the pandemic, or both, and now, there are initial indications that things are changing. Last week, new pledges of funding from the United States and the European Union, among others, drove Covax financing to $ 6 billion. The Biden administration alone pledged a total of $ 4 billion to fund these efforts, which reflected the policy under President Donald Trump, and separately, French President Emmanuel Macron asked rich countries to donate 13 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine to African governments. Macron argued at a virtual Munich Security Conference last week that the process would be faster than donating money to Covax, which instead of having to negotiate new orders, would effectively jump the line, although few other countries have signed up for the idea. Even now, vaccination is on the rise in rich countries, and calls are likely to gain traction. The British government said last week that it would “share the majority of future coronavirus vaccines in excess of our supplies” with Covax, without giving a time frame. Last week’s Covax successes provide some much-needed good news about the global vaccine supply. After the disastrous winter that saw high incidence and deaths in many rich countries, governments focused on introducing vaccines to their people. But experts have warned that without a global action plan, the pandemic may not really end for anyone, according to the Duke University Global Health Innovation Center Tracking, as of February 15, rich countries had gotten more than 4.6 billion doses of vaccines – more than anything. Middle- and low-income countries combined are nearly four times the number purchased by Covax, which had gotten 1.1 billion by then, and separate research from the Think Global Health project of the Council on Foreign Relations found that while 84% of high-income countries started Their Vaccination Programs As of February 18, only 7 percent of low-income countries have vaccinated anyone. Scientists have argued that such an unequal supply of the vaccine increases the risks of prolonging the epidemic, with unrestricted spread around the world potentially leading to trickier vaccine variants. Notably, South Africa, where a particularly dangerous species was first found, initially relied on Covax. Vaccinations started only last week, and Kovacs’ announcements about increased distribution and funding have been positive, but they are only one piece of the puzzle. There was also good news from the vaccine studies available, with recent data on vaccines’ efficacy after a single dose, their successes against variants and even their storage that could affect global vaccine efforts, according to research from Scotland this week, for example, the first doses of a vaccine have resulted. Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca reduce hospital admissions for covid-19 among the elderly by up to 85% and 94%, respectively. Arne Akbar, president of the British Society of Immunology, described the initial data as “very promising”. In the United States, a review of the Food and Drug Administration published on Wednesday of a vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson found that the single-shot vaccine is safe and appears to be effective against variants. Francois Ballux, director of the Institute of Genetics at University College London, described the data as “absolutely wonderful” on Twitter, as there is a tendency towards cautious optimism at the moment. To be sure, the numbers in the US look positive – as Atlantic correspondent James Hamblin said last week, many are already looking forward to a “possibly wonderful summer”. Globally, the picture is less rosy but clearly better than it has been in recent weeks. At the same time, optimism should not overshadow caution. Kovacs is still underfunded, despite a recent round of cash injection, while Macron’s suggestion to donate the potion remains a mere suggestion. In a WHO briefing on Monday, US infectious disease doctor Anthony S. declined to comment on whether Washington would support him, but indicated that it had been discussed, and the shipment that arrived in Ghana on Wednesday is sufficient to cover 1% of Ghana. Population. Like some other middle- and low-income countries, Ghana has not been hit as hard by the virus as the wealthier countries – it has so far had around 80,700 cases of coronavirus and 580 deaths – but there is little understanding of why or how it happens. May change. This is not the only mystery. Although case numbers have decreased dramatically in some countries since the height of winter, the exact reason behind these declines is uncertain. In some countries, case numbers are running high – in some countries, like Denmark, this is happening despite the lockdown. A recent expert survey by Nature found that 90 percent of experts believed the virus was likely to become a pandemic, but there was no consensus on how this would affect humans, but nevertheless, the current outlook is more positive than it was. In the months. Vaccines work against the virus, and it appears that introducing them will significantly slow its spread, and these vaccines are shipped to more parts of the world. It could be a lot better, but it’s also a lot worse, and at least that’s a start.