January 18th, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros once again criticized the unfair distribution of the global Coronavirus vaccine, highlighting the grim reality facing the international community under the pandemic crisis-when many Western developed countries were distressed by the unwillingness of some people to vaccinate and the progress was not as expected At that time, more countries are worrying about how to obtain vaccines.
However, no matter how painful this unfair reality is, many people in the past (including the present) who like to advertise humanism and human rights have turned a deaf ear to the “forgotten corner” waiting.
“Vaccine distribution is a magic mirror, showing which countries really talk about human rights and which countries just talk about human rights.” said a Chinese scholar. How long will the “vaccine battle” last in 2021? When will the “depression” of the global pandemic be filled?
Some countries will not get the vaccine until 2022?
“Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has not bought any vaccines.” Like many African countries, Nigeria, with a population of more than 200 million, is suffering from the second wave of the pandemic.
According to Bloomberg News in the United States, due to factors such as price and logistics, Nigerian officials expect a clear vaccine purchase plan at the end of January.
In fact, this large African country has a very urgent desire for vaccines. The number of confirmed cases is increasing day by day, and more than 2,600 medical staff have been infected.
Every day and every minute is suffering, and many front-line staff are exhausted. This week, Nigeria wrote to the African Union seeking 100,000 doses of vaccine and allocated $26 million for the production of approved vaccines.
Originally, Nigeria had the opportunity to receive 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine through the “Coronavirus Vaccine Implementation Plan” (COVAX) led by the World Health Organization (WHO) this month. The long waiter will broadcast live vaccination on TV.
The Ministry of Health also announced the distribution plan. It can be said that the people across the country are looking forward to it.
However, the Ministry of Health suddenly announced on the 14th that the vaccine will not arrive at the end of January.
The sudden change reminds people of the recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that there are no vaccine stocks available for distribution.
Many Nigerians are a little puzzled: There will be no problems with vaccines! We were fooled by the United States? “Look at what chaos in their country is now.
Besides, they always emphasize’America first’, and Americans can’t get the vaccination themselves. How could they give it to us?” Nigerian policeman Sanda said. “It seems really boring at the moment.
We can’t count on the United States and Europe. They have rushed into a group. The only thing we can count on is China!” said Ochuku, an official of the Ministry of Information and Culture of Nigeria.
In South Africa, another big country in Africa, despite the summer, it still ushered in the peak of the pandemic.
South African Congressman Andy Lodge once suggested through social networks that “we should buy a Coronavirus vaccine first, and then copy and produce it. In the face of saving lives, any patents and commercial profits are not worth mentioning”.
Although these comments catered to the aspirations of the people, they aroused ridicule on the Internet. “How do we replicate and produce it? We don’t even know the formula of Coronavirus vaccine.” Some netizens said.
Judging from the actual effect of the introduction of vaccines in South Africa, the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by India has not been in place, and Pfizer vaccines are still lining up globally.
At the beginning of this year, a number of South African media disclosed that “South Africa is producing 300 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine for Johnson & Johnson.
Is it impossible to get one dose?” The public opinion expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s strategy for obtaining vaccines, and their voices were more focused on the strategy.
Vague”, information such as where to obtain the vaccine, the time of vaccination, and the price is not available.
This is true for large African countries, but it is even more difficult for many small countries.
But there is also good news: Seychelles has begun to vaccinate Chinese vaccines, donated by the UAE, Egypt is about to vaccinate Chinese vaccines on a large scale, and Guinea has vaccinated 25 people with Russian vaccines.
The same situation exists in Asia. Pakistan’s “News” recently stated that while some developed countries have begun to vaccinate frontline personnel and people with more than one vaccine, developing countries like Pakistan are still struggling to obtain safe and effective vaccines.
On the 18th, Pakistan issued a press announcement saying that it approved the emergency use of Coronavirus vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group in the country.
According to Pakistan’s “Dawn” previously reported that the country is acquiring AstraZeneca vaccines through COVAX and private companies.
An unnamed Pakistani Drug Administration official said, “I personally don’t think this vaccine will be available on the market in the next few months. The reality is that the vaccine is not available globally.
This situation may require It continued until the end of the second quarter of this year.”
According to the British “Nature” magazine, because high-income countries directly buy existing and planned vaccines from vaccine suppliers, middle-income countries are also negotiating with their suppliers, resulting in very few vaccines available for COVAX.
People may not get the vaccine until at least 2022.” In addition, the delivery of vaccines had to be delayed due to the difficulty in meeting the demand for vaccine supply from pharmaceutical companies.
“Nepal will get the vaccine provided by COVAX as soon as 4 months later.” Nepal’s “Republic” website stated on the 18th.
For many poor countries, vaccine supply is only one of the challenges. Because vaccines such as Pfizer require ultra-low temperature storage, this has left many countries with poor infrastructure conditions at a loss.
Therefore, some media said that Western countries not only rush to stock up on vaccines, but also do not consider the needs of underdeveloped regions in terms of the logistics conditions required for vaccines.
“A sample of vaccine nationalism”
“The EU wants to share the surplus vaccine,” German TV 1 reported on the 20th.
The European Commission’s health and food safety commissioner Kiryakidis stated that the EU is discussing with member states to establish a mechanism to fully operate in COVAX.
Previously, surplus vaccines were shared with the less affluent Western Balkans, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
“COVAX has started operations, but so far it is still difficult to obtain a vaccine.” Kyriakidis said.
Right now, all parts of the world are criticizing Europe, which was at the forefront of combating vaccine nationalism last year, thinking that it has now become a “sample of vaccine nationalism” together with the United States.
The EU and its member states have focused on Germany. The German weekly “Der Spiegel” stated that the German government separately ordered 30 million doses of vaccine from the German manufacturer BioNTech outside of the EU joint mechanism, which caused dissatisfaction with neighboring countries.
In the end, the European Commission negotiated with Germany, requiring Germany to deliver the 30 million doses of vaccine only after the EU joint order is completed.
The EU, with a population of 450 million, has ordered nearly 2.3 billion doses of Coronavirus vaccine from 6 vaccine manufacturers. If each person needs two doses, there will be a lot of surplus.
However, from the current point of view, it is impossible for the EU to cede part of its vaccine to underdeveloped countries.
In terms of time, it should be around the third quarter of this year, that is, after EU countries have basically completed the inoculation of their own personnel, there is a relatively high probability of sharing with other countries.
From the perspective of European public opinion, because the current EU-approved vaccines for Pfizer and Modena are produced by American companies, many European experts accuse the United States of adopting the “America First” policy as irresponsible, and reflect on Europe’s panic buying of vaccines and occupying resources.
There is very little sound. In addition, European public opinion generally believes that vaccines developed in Europe and the United States, such as Pfizer and Modena, are expensive and costly for storage and transportation, making them not a good choice for poor countries.
A European expert who did not want to be named also told the Global Times reporter that the reason why the European Union did not include Chinese vaccines in its procurement plan was partly because it considered that there will be a large market for Chinese vaccines in underdeveloped countries, and the European Union is unwilling to compete. Vaccine resources.
In fact, even in the same continent, you can see serious inequality.
“The Balkans have a sense of being abandoned,” an Associated Press report wrote. In terms of vaccination progress, this corner of the European continent is far behind the European Union.
They feel lonely and abandoned.
Most of the Western Balkans rely on COVAX to obtain vaccines.
Since they were unable to get the vaccine, they had to help themselves and each other. Serbia acted fastest. It first obtained a small amount of Pfizer and Russian vaccines, but it was far away from mass vaccination.
When China’s first batch of 1 million doses of vaccines arrived in Belgrade on January 16, President Vucic went to the airport to greet them.
On the 18th, Serbia’s neighbor of North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zaev announced good news: Serbia will transfer 8,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine to him at the purchase price.
Not to be outdone, Albania received 975 doses of vaccines through an EU country, which allowed the country to start vaccination this week.
According to Prime Minister Rama of Afghanistan, according to its order contract with Pfizer, Afghanistan will receive 10,000 doses of vaccine next week.
Rama also stated that Kosovo will be given “a symbolic amount of vaccines” for vaccinations of frontline medical personnel.
When it comes to the “responsibility” of developed countries, Canada is more typical.
Not long ago, Canada rejected the WHO’s call for vaccine donations. Canada has ordered as many as 414 million doses of vaccine, more than five times the amount needed by its entire population.
According to the Canadian “Globe and Mail” report, on this issue, the Canadian government has encountered almost no pressure from opposition parties in the country. “Is there a surplus of our vaccine?” said a Conservative MP. “I don’t think there is any.
When will the government think there is a surplus, two years from now or three years from now? The government’s information on this aspect should be transparent.”
“Canadians are’tearing’ between helping the world and helping themselves.” The Canadian News Agency said on the 19th that while Ottawa is facing pressure to help poorer countries obtain vaccines, it is also because the provinces in the country are demanding that its residents be vaccinated as soon as possible. The reality of the vaccine is at a loss.
David Hornsby, professor of international affairs at Carleton University, said that the pandemic has highlighted Canada’s trend of “looking inward” that has been going on for many years.
In the past 25 to 30 years, Canada’s “definition of national interest” has changed from “very broad and Be inclusive”, turning to “very narrow and focused on issues that are urgently relevant to Canadians.”
“Global demand for Chinese and Russian vaccines is increasing”
“The gap in vaccine distribution between developed and developing countries is huge, and it becomes more and more obvious as a few countries develop and accelerate vaccine delivery.” Chen Xi, associate professor of global health policy and economics at Yale University, told the Global Times reporter.
COVAX, did not see the cooperation proposal between developed and developing countries. The WHO Director-General therefore emphasized that this is a collective “catastrophic moral failure.”
“Vaccine distribution is a magic mirror, showing which countries really talk about human rights and which countries just talk about human rights.”
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs of Renmin University of China, said in an interview with a reporter from the Global Times on the 20th. Coronavirus pandemic is a global humanitarian disaster.
The performance of Western countries that have always advertised the supremacy of humanitarianism and human rights runs counter to their principles.
Not only has developed countries robbed and stocked pandemic prevention materials, they have also torn off the cloak of hypocrisy in vaccine distribution. Even the vaccinations in the country are rich first and then poor.
The United States and other countries are still dominated by private capital in vaccine distribution, reflecting the selfish nature of capital chasing benefits.
This situation has happened more than once. The last time was during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Developed countries relied on their own “big business” to rush to buy vaccines.
The United States has allocated at least US$1 billion before the release of the vaccine, while the United Kingdom plans to vaccinate at least half of the country’s population early next year.
“We once again see the advantage of wealth. We once again see the situation where (vaccine) cannot be obtained due to the inability to purchase it.” said Margaret Chan, then director-general of the WHO.
A Chinese scholar who has been communicating in the UK for a long time told the Global Times reporter that the hypocrisy of Western countries since the outbreak has made her feel very deeply.
“They ignore and treat the people of their own country, let alone treat other countries.” The scholar exclaimed. “Psychologically speaking, after closing the country and reducing exchanges, the country and the nation become selfish and selfish.
The West. Some elites have double standards on many issues. They don’t really care or care about it. They only care about their power and votes.”
In Chen Xi’s view, solving the vaccine dilemma requires efforts in the following areas:
- 1. Developed countries provide bilateral and multilateral vaccine assistance to developing countries, especially those countries whose vaccine reservations far exceed their populations should act as soon as possible;
- 2. A variety of vaccine development options are needed, especially vaccines suitable for storage and transportation conditions in developing countries;
- 3. Centrally negotiated with major pharmaceutical companies to obtain non-patent applications and mass-produce them in their own country or other capable countries. India has great potential in this regard.
According to the “Global Times” reporter, India is trying to show its image as a major country and medical industry supply chain advantages through vaccine exports.
An anonymous source told reporters that starting on the 20th, India will gradually launch “vaccine diplomacy” operations, first supplying neighboring countries, and then focusing on supporting dozens of low- and middle-income countries.
However, some analysts believe that India has to meet the domestic demand for large-scale population vaccination while also exporting, and it may be difficult to follow. Countries waiting for the vaccine in India may not receive it until the second half of this year.
The number of cases in India is second only to the United States, and the Indian government has proposed to vaccinate the 300 million people on the priority list by the end of July.
“Global demand for Chinese and Russian vaccines is increasing.” The Financial Times said on the 19th that as countries compete for Coronavirus vaccine intensified, Chinese and Russian manufacturers have found that foreign buyers are increasingly interested in their Coronavirus vaccine.
On the one hand, the article mentioned that international buyers have signed contracts to purchase Sino-Russian vaccines.
On the other hand, it also emphasized that “all parties still have some concerns about Sino-Russian vaccines”.
The German “Youth World” recently criticized Europe and the United States for reluctance to provide vaccine patents to other countries.
The article believes that for more and more countries, the success of the pandemic will no longer depend on and obey the leadership of the West, but on China launches cooperation.
This includes not only countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, but also countries such as Serbia in Europe.
