All around the world: the dangers of vaccine nationalism

As we head further into 2021 it’s fair to say that much of our focus is still placed on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst much of 2020 saw governments and life sciences racing to stay ahead of the virus – to very mixed results – this year the spotlight is on the rollout of vaccines.

That there are three Covid-19 vaccines available in the UK is testament to the incredible efforts of the pharma industry, which has managed to bring to market therapies that would usually take around a decade to research and develop.

And though in the UK at least millions of people have been given a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, we can’t forget that much of the rest of the world still remains unvaccinated and will possibly remain this way for many years.

A major factor in this is that a lot of the Covid-19 vaccine supply has been bought up by wealthy countries, who have stockpiled exceedingly large numbers of doses far outweighing the needs of their respective populations.

The UK is just one example of this type of vaccine nationalism that prevents the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. For instance, the UK government has secured a portfolio of 407 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, all in order to vaccinate a population of around 68 million.

At the same time, many developing countries are having to depend on philanthropic efforts such as the Covax scheme, which has been designed to equitably distribute 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.

The Covax scheme is essential. Consider that as of 4 February, a total of 108 million Covid-19 vaccines doses had been administered across 67 countries. However, a mere 4.4% of vaccinations had been given in developing countries.

Quite frankly, there needs to be a better system in place to ensure that a larger spread of the global population is vaccinated against Covid-19. Efforts such as Covax are welcome, but without a global unilateral approach the risk of large swathes of the population being left unvaccinated for a long time is high.

Whilst it makes sense to vaccinate at-risk groups of essential workers, if we can’t do this on a global scale then we risk undoing a lot of the work that has gone into fighting this virus. After all, we’ve already seen new variants of coronavirus spread throughout communities, causing governments and the pharma industry to rethink their approach to vaccines and lockdown measures.

The longer Covid-19 affects us on a global scale, then the longer we will have to endure a world without the luxuries we are used to. The economy will continue to take a hit, but more importantly, families, friends and loved one will be hit the hardest.

Until we’re all safe, none of us will be.