The Global Vaccine Gap

the World Health Organization. Biden plans to send Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, to speak at the w h O Executive Board meeting this week. It's a repudiation of World Trump's attitude to the organization since the start of the pandemic. The Biden transition team released a fact sheet this morning saying the new administration will work with the w h O to strengthen and reform it.

Visor and its partner, bio n Tech, published results from a lab trial that build the case that their vaccine will protect against the new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus. The results published on Wednesday, add to previous research showing that antibodies and the blood of people who have been vaccinated were able to neutralize a version of the mutant virus that was created in a lab. The new research

has not yet been pure reviewed. Finally, Germany's daily coronavirus death toll rose by the most since the pandemic began, even as there are tentative signs the infection rate is starting to come down. Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders agree to extend and titan Germany's coronavirus restrictions. Merkel called on European partners to synchronize measures to contain the spread. Otherwise, she said travel restrictions would be imposed. And now for

today's main story. In a race to catch up with emerging coronavirus variants, wealthy countries are already benefiting from potent vaccines, while the US, Britain and the European Union have given citizens about twenty four million doses so far, more than half of the shots of Minister. Globally, vast numbers of countries have yet to begin their campaigns. I spoke with London based reporter James Payton, who says these disparities pose

a threat to both have and have not states. I was wondering if you might break this down for US a bit, what's the economics at heart here behind a country's ability to secure and distribute COVID nineteen vaccines. Yeah, it's a good question. So the world in a way

is splitting into two tiers. Today. We see wealthier countries, as you say, including the US, Britain, members of the European Union, ramp up their immunization campaigns, and despite some inevitable snags along the way, those efforts are are progressing their well under way. At the same time, many developing and middle income nations around the world have yet to

begin their rollouts or they're only just starting up. And just this week the head of the World Health Organizations set around fifty hiring comb nations had begun their vaccine drive US and we keep track of this at Bloomberg. Globally, the Bloomberg Tracker shows almost uh fifty million doses so far have been administered. The problem is only one of the world's lowest income countries had had started as of a couple of days ago, according to the w h O,

and had given just twenty five doses to individuals. That's to five doses. Now, people who have been following this issue closely won't be surprised that there's a gap, because the world has been moving in this direction for some months, with major economies like the US and and UK aggressively snapping up billions of doses in recent months and striking supply deals with manufacturers. But now here we are in a situation where there's a risk of a widening immunity gap.

And of course there are significant ethical considerations. You talk about the fairness of this, which is a huge factor. The director of the who said the world and his words is now in the brink of a catastrophic moral failure. But this is also a huge public health and economic problem potentially as well. You know, widespread deployment of vaccines is seen by disease authorities as well as financial experts as the as the key to getting the virus under

control reviving battered economies. So the implications are significant no matter where you are. And and obviously if we allow the virus to continue to advance in large parts of the world without vaccines to protect the population, then the virus could get an edge and we could see new variants and you know, the level of concern could rise. So that's why this is such an urgent issue, UM, and why there's a need, you know, according to public

health authorities to move swiftly here. Now, as you say, there have been numerous calls and certainly efforts to make vaccine distribution more equitable around the globe. One such effort is something called KOVACS, and I was wondering if you might talk a bit about what its role has been in terms of this equity debate. Yeah, So, as you say, there have been ambitious global efforts to tackle this disparity.

To address this problem, many months ago, the w h O and a group called GAV the Vaccine Alliance and SEPPI, the Coalition for Epademic Preparedness Innovations, formed this program called KOVACS as you say, too, and the goal is basically, too equitably deploy vaccines to every corner of the planet.

And UM, this initiative recently announced that it had secured I believe it was almost two billion doses for the world and would start rolling out those UH inoculations in the first months of one that that could begin in

earnest in February, I believe. But again, the w h O this week issued some pretty dire comments, suggesting that several countries had expressed concern about whether KOVACS would have enough vaccines to meet demand, and that with UM so many countries now pursuing their own direct supply agreements with manufacturers rather than going through KOVACS, that it could jeopardize global collaboration and even bump up the prices of vaccines,

which which would further exacerbate the challenge of getting doses to the developing world. So some of the experts I've talked to point out that UM some countries now are getting increasingly anxious about the timing and the quantities of of COVID vaccine doses. We're seeing a flurry of these bilateral negotiations between countries and drugmakers that are proceeding separately

from KOVACS. UH. And you know, vaccine advocates are are aware of this problem, and so they've called on countries and companies to to take some steps to address it.

So they're significant work and discussion underway. Though clearly the know the urgency is growing as we as we enter a new phase of the pandemic ine and I wanted to go back to something you were talking about a little bit earlier, which is the proportion to which countries, particularly wealthy countries, have been able to secure specific vaccines. You know, what is the distribution in terms of say the supply of Fiser vaccines versus Moderna vaccines or even

say the astro Zenica vaccine. Which type of vaccine is going to which country. Yeah, it's a really interesting question, so UM and some of the people I have talked to have suggested that this isn't just a question of access to vaccines globally, but it's also an issue of

access to highly potent vaccines or the best vaccines. And the arrival of shots from Fiser and Maderna, both of which generated efficacy levels of around n pretty remarkable results in late stage clinical trials, that has sparked the question of whether the entire world will be able to secure the same level of protection UH for their populations, and wealthy countries have have largely bought up the doses of

those two vaccines. The data that we've that we've seen shows UM that they've high incombinations have secured something like of the fives or doses and a of the Madurna doses UM. Thus far now much of the world is going to be relying on vaccines from astros Eneca, the UK drug maker and its partner, the University of Oxford, along with the Chinese company called sign Avac, potentially a vaccine from Johnson and Johnson. The number of others that are that are coming uh soon potentially now, even if

those vaccines don't match the same headline efficacy numbers. You know, these vaccines have been tested for their ability to prevent symptoms. Health authorities say that when it comes to preventing severe disease and suffering and deaths UM the most important factors

to consider. The data we've seen so far suggests that the first vaccines could be comparable, but all of these vaccines could end up diverging in terms of side effects and how long their protection could last, how efficient they are in actually stopping the spread of the virus, which will become even more critical I think in the coming months. So the jury is still out and it's going to be important to consider some of those issues in light

of the access disparities we're seeing. Clearly, the first vaccines out of the gates UM, you know, those wealthy countries have been quite aggressive in buying up those doses. UM. But astros Eneka and the University of Oxford in particular UM are seen as playing a really critical role now

in getting vaccines to the rest of the world. As we've been talking about, wealthier nations have been able to secure in some cases not just enough doses to immunize their populations, but actually double the amount of doses they would need to immunize their populations, Specifically countries such as Canada, or the UK, or even the US. How have these nations reacted thus far to calls for them perhaps to share their doses. Um they're unused doses or doses that

they have secured but may not actually need. Yeah, it's a good question. We have seen some steps by uh, some wealthy countries in in recent days and weeks. I believe Canada has pledged to invest in a mechanism to

redistribute doses. Norway just said it would donate some extra supplies. UM. So there is you know, plenty of focus on this issue and reason to think that you know, some of these efforts to narrow that divide I will succeed and that that UM, some of these countries may you know, share some of these doses, reallocate some of these doses. Um uh. But you know, this is a scenario that people have been warning about for about a year, and there there is some skepticism about when, you know when

that will happen. Um. I think it's also important to stress that with the incoming Biden administration, we're likely to see some major moves to shake up the vaccine effort in the COVID response, and that could have interesting implications that have a ripple effect well beyond US borders. Um. You know, there are signs that the US now is set to join KOVACS and re engage with the World Health Organization. So that could be a turning point in

a way. We'll just have to wait and see. But in the global effort, that could be um, that could be significant. That was James Payton and that's it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one hundred twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Tophra

Foreheads Magnus Hendrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by James Payton. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening in color and