YOU EXPECT THIS FROM A GOVT THAT CUT INTERNATIONAL AID
Sarah Boseley THE GUARDIAN 4/28/2021
Leading scientists are urging the UK to share the Covid vaccines it has bought with India and other nations, to tackle the soaring death toll and reduce the spread of the virus and new variants around the world.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said rich countries including the UK that have bought up most of the vaccine supply “urgently need to start sharing these doses with the rest of the world, alongside national rollouts in their own countries, and through the Covax programme. And they must set out a timetable for how these donations will be increased as they vaccinate more of their populations domestically.”
Leading scientists are urging the UK to share the Covid vaccines it has bought with India and other nations, to tackle the soaring death toll and reduce the spread of the virus and new variants around the world.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said rich countries including the UK that have bought up most of the vaccine supply “urgently need to start sharing these doses with the rest of the world, alongside national rollouts in their own countries, and through the Covax programme. And they must set out a timetable for how these donations will be increased as they vaccinate more of their populations domestically.”
© Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPA A Kashmiri man receives the Covid vaccine in Srinagar. Only one in 500 people in low-income countries have been vaccinated.
Writing in the Guardian, Farrar called on the UK to lead the world, through its presidency of the G7. “We have already vaccinated over half of our population – including those who are most at risk from Covid-19. In fact, the UK has given almost as many doses to its own citizens than Covax has been able to ship to 120 countries in dire need of jabs,” he said.
Covax, the UN-based initiative to get vaccines to the most vulnerable 20% of the population of every country, has managed to deliver only a fifth of the doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine expected by May, because of global shortages and problems with supply.
One in four people in high-income countries are now protected but only one in 500 in low-income countries, where unvaccinated health workers are still putting their lives on the line. The US has announced it will give India 60m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet licensed for use in the US.
Farrar said sharing vaccines was in every country’s self-interest. “The shores Covid now rages upon may seem distant to some, but the reality is that so long as the virus continues to spread in other countries, it continues to be a threat to everyone. If we allow Covid-19 to keep spreading, it will go on evolving, increasing the risk of new variants that could cross borders and evade vaccines and treatments.”
Farrar’s views are shared by other leading scientists in the UK, as well as the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has talked of the “moral outrage” of vaccines for rich countries but not the poor and called for countries to share.
Prof Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the UK needed to get to the point where all adults are vaccinated, but added: “Globally, leaders need to be saying how can we make sure that the world’s population is not dying in front of us, which we are seeing at the moment.
“If we continue to focus on vaccinating younger and younger age groups in the high income countries, when there are many thousands of people dying who are not getting the vaccine. I don’t think that’s a situation that’s acceptable. So, if the question to me is, should we be rethinking where we are. I think the answer is yes, we should be, because the only way that we can stop those people dying next month is by vaccinating them this month.”
The grim scenes playing out in India are increasing the pressure on rich countries to act. Polly Roy, professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: “The Covid-19 situation in India is currently uncontrollable. India needs to vaccinate as many people as possible to stop the transmission of this virus.
“We must share our vaccines with them to control further infection and death. Vaccination is key to controlling every aspect of Covid going forward, for India and for all of us.”
Prof Beate Kampmann, the director of LSHTM’s vaccine centre, said the UK had ordered five times the amount of vaccines it needed for its population. Rather than give vaccines to the under-30s whose risk is low in pursuit of some concept of herd immunity, politicians should give them to the most vulnerable people in India and other countries to save lives.
“As far as the UK is concerned, I think the kind of approach of going for what we think is an elusive concept of herd immunity rather than sharing vaccines across the globe to prevent deaths is a huge mistake,” she said.
Some argue that vaccines will not help those who are suffering now in India’s hospitals for want of treatment. “But that doesn’t mean there are not other places, including in India, where vaccines can have a rapid life-saving impact,” she said.
Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said he liked the idea of a “tithe” for countries such as the UK, put forward by Prof Gavin Yamey of the Duke Global Health Institute in the US. For every nine vaccines given in the UK, one would be donated to Covax.
“The UK is in the enviable position of having vaccinated virtually all of our elderly and vulnerable populations and other priority groups such as healthcare workers. It would be very reasonable to suggest that some of the vaccine rollout now be distributed internationally to countries of high need,” said Head.
Writing in the Guardian, Farrar called on the UK to lead the world, through its presidency of the G7. “We have already vaccinated over half of our population – including those who are most at risk from Covid-19. In fact, the UK has given almost as many doses to its own citizens than Covax has been able to ship to 120 countries in dire need of jabs,” he said.
Covax, the UN-based initiative to get vaccines to the most vulnerable 20% of the population of every country, has managed to deliver only a fifth of the doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine expected by May, because of global shortages and problems with supply.
One in four people in high-income countries are now protected but only one in 500 in low-income countries, where unvaccinated health workers are still putting their lives on the line. The US has announced it will give India 60m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet licensed for use in the US.
Farrar said sharing vaccines was in every country’s self-interest. “The shores Covid now rages upon may seem distant to some, but the reality is that so long as the virus continues to spread in other countries, it continues to be a threat to everyone. If we allow Covid-19 to keep spreading, it will go on evolving, increasing the risk of new variants that could cross borders and evade vaccines and treatments.”
Farrar’s views are shared by other leading scientists in the UK, as well as the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has talked of the “moral outrage” of vaccines for rich countries but not the poor and called for countries to share.
Prof Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the UK needed to get to the point where all adults are vaccinated, but added: “Globally, leaders need to be saying how can we make sure that the world’s population is not dying in front of us, which we are seeing at the moment.
“If we continue to focus on vaccinating younger and younger age groups in the high income countries, when there are many thousands of people dying who are not getting the vaccine. I don’t think that’s a situation that’s acceptable. So, if the question to me is, should we be rethinking where we are. I think the answer is yes, we should be, because the only way that we can stop those people dying next month is by vaccinating them this month.”
The grim scenes playing out in India are increasing the pressure on rich countries to act. Polly Roy, professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: “The Covid-19 situation in India is currently uncontrollable. India needs to vaccinate as many people as possible to stop the transmission of this virus.
“We must share our vaccines with them to control further infection and death. Vaccination is key to controlling every aspect of Covid going forward, for India and for all of us.”
Prof Beate Kampmann, the director of LSHTM’s vaccine centre, said the UK had ordered five times the amount of vaccines it needed for its population. Rather than give vaccines to the under-30s whose risk is low in pursuit of some concept of herd immunity, politicians should give them to the most vulnerable people in India and other countries to save lives.
“As far as the UK is concerned, I think the kind of approach of going for what we think is an elusive concept of herd immunity rather than sharing vaccines across the globe to prevent deaths is a huge mistake,” she said.
Some argue that vaccines will not help those who are suffering now in India’s hospitals for want of treatment. “But that doesn’t mean there are not other places, including in India, where vaccines can have a rapid life-saving impact,” she said.
Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, said he liked the idea of a “tithe” for countries such as the UK, put forward by Prof Gavin Yamey of the Duke Global Health Institute in the US. For every nine vaccines given in the UK, one would be donated to Covax.
“The UK is in the enviable position of having vaccinated virtually all of our elderly and vulnerable populations and other priority groups such as healthcare workers. It would be very reasonable to suggest that some of the vaccine rollout now be distributed internationally to countries of high need,” said Head.
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