According to an analytical report conducted by a non-governmental organization, Oxfam, developed nations have already bought more than half of the supply of COVID 19 vaccines. These include the U.S. UK, European Union, Australia, Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, Switzerland and Israel. These nations constitute 13 percent of the world’s population.
The analysis was based on the data collected by analytics company Airfinity, that mentioned the deals made between pharmaceuticals and vaccine producers of five leading vaccine candidates – AstraZeneca, Sputnik, Moderna, Pfizer and Sinovac, reported The Mint.
Currently, the production capacity of these five vaccine candidates account for 5.9 billion doses, sufficient for three billion people around the world. Of the total, supply deals for 5.3 billion doses have been made till now.
These nations have already bought 2.7 billion doses that accounts for 51 percent of the total vaccines, whereas, the remaining 2.6 billion doses have been promised to countries like India, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Indonesia and Mexico.
Moderna specifically intends to make profit from the vaccine it has developed and has promised the majority of its supply to these developed nations, Oxfam added. However, NGOs worldwide have called for developing a ‘People’s Vaccine’, which should be fairly and equitably distributed.
Advocacy manager of Oxfam, Robert Silverman has said that access to a vaccine should not be based on the financial capacity of a country. The development of a safe and efficient vaccine is important but since COVID-19 is a global pandemic, the vaccine should be made available for everyone.
Equitable distribution is possible only if the vaccine is produced at a large scale, and by sharing the knowledge instead of protecting it for the highest bidders, he added.
As per the last 24-hours update, coronavirus has infected over 29.9 million people globally, and have claimed 9,41,000 lives. The number of people recovered now accounts for 20.3 million.
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