The heads of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, and UNICEF, Henrietta
Fore, made the call in a joint statement posted on WHO website.
According to them, in the COVID-19 vaccine race, we either
win together or lose together.
Ghebreyesus and Fore, however, called on leaders “to look
beyond their borders and employ a vaccine strategy that can actually end the
pandemic and limit variants.
“Of the 128 million doses administered so far, more than
three-quarters of vaccinations have been in just 10 of the wealthiest nations,”
they said.
This is a “self-defeating strategy” that will cost lives and
livelihoods, the UN officials said, before warning that it would also give the
virus the chance “to mutate and evade vaccines”, while also undermining
economic recovery.
“So that vaccine rollouts can begin in all countries of the
world in the first 100 days of 2021,” the WHO and UNICEF chiefs said.
“It was imperative that health workers who have been on the
frontlines of the pandemic in lower and middle-income settings should be
protected first.”
They also called for the COVID response initiative, known as
Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT), to be fully funded, to help
developing countries to deploy vaccines.
“If fully funded, the ACT Accelerator could return up to
$166 for every dollar invested,’’ the UN officials added.
In a related development, WHO expert panel countered
concerns over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine on Wednesday,
insisting that “it’s the right thing to do” to use it – even in countries where
variants had surfaced.
“Even if you have the circulation of a variant in a country,
there is no reason that we see for now, not to use the AstraZeneca vaccine as
indicated.
“There is no reason not to use it to be able to reduce the
levels of severe disease in that population,” said Dr Alejandro Cravioto, Chair
of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE).
The development follows the recent release of data from a
study in South Africa indicating that the AstraZeneca jab provided little
protection against a variant of the new coronavirus among older people.
At a press conference in Geneva, SAGE Executive Secretary,
Dr Joachim Hombach, described that study as “relatively modest”, while Dr
Cravioto added that few over 65s had taken part in it.
Dr Kate O’Brien, WHO’s head of immunisation, said that the
South African study’s findings were “inconclusive, albeit demonstrating a low
efficacy against mild and moderate disease.
“Most important was the ‘absence of evidence from that trial
over whether the AZ product has efficacy against severe disease,
hospitalisation and death’.
“That is the outcome of most interest and most impact for
early roll-out of vaccines,” O’Brien said.
From research into the new coronavirus’ response to vaccines
in trials so far, O’Brien explained that the highest impact had been among the
most poorly patients.
“For all of the vaccines there is a gradient of response,”
she said.
“The highest response is against the most severe disease and
somewhat lower efficacy for moderate and then further down for milder
disease…this is not unique to coronavirus vaccine.”
The vaccine should be administered in two doses to people
over 18 years old “without any upper age limit”, Cravioto said, adding that the
“best” interval between the first and second doses was eight to 12 weeks, to
ensure an increased immune response.
Although the vaccine is “safe”, the SAGE Chair said that
owing to a lack of available data, it was not yet possible to make a
recommendation about whether the vaccine should be given to all pregnant or
breastfeeding women.
Cravioto said that decision should be taken on an individual
basis by a general practitioner.
In addition, he said because of a lack of available vaccines
and the need to continue limiting the potential for the virus to spread, he
advised that international travellers should not be given the jab.
Also, WHO Chief Scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, urged
countries to use the AstraZeneca vaccine – particularly those for whom it would
be their sole protection against the virus –, insisting that there was no time
to lose.
“The vast majority of countries that are still waiting to
introduce a vaccine – and this vaccine may be the first one – certainly the
benefits will far outweigh the risks.”
Swaminathan also issued a call for greater genomic
monitoring of COVID-19 transmission in initiatives including the Africa
Pathogen Genomics Initiative.
“In many other countries the situation may be that with very
limited sequencing they’ve been able to detect this variant, but they don’t
know the spread. And therefore, they’re very cautious in making decisions based
on very limited data.”
To date, there have been 106,555,206 confirmed cases of
COVID-19, including 2,333,446 deaths, reported to WHO.
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