Leading philanthropists and immunization experts say the world lacks the ability to properly manufacture, finance and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine, even if one were found by the end of the year.
The good news, they say, is that if planning starts now as promising research continues, a new method can be found to ensure the vaccine goes to everyone who needs it across the world.
They say that itself would be a breakthrough in international science, business and political co-operation.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other groups are calling for new global financing tools to spool up the manufacturing capability in both developed and less developed countries.
That’s because, as of right now, there’s no equitable or practical way to distribute a new vaccine across the globe.
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2:47 Health Matters: April 30
Health Matters: April 30
That means coming up with potentially tens of billions of dollars to outfit factories, train health workers, and focus research on a simple vaccine that might work.
“We need to put in place a massive amount of capacity to develop vaccines, so when and if we get a vaccine, that’s able to be developed or manufactured at a huge and unprecedented scale,” Joe Cerrell, the managing director of the Gates foundation said from London during a conference call Thursday that included participants from at least three continents.
GAVI, the world’s leading international immunization non-profit organization, and the One Campaign advocacy group are joining the Gates foundation in the push for a plan.
Cerrell said advance market commitments are a key financial tool that governments and companies need to adopt to ensure the smooth rollout of a vaccine.
An advance market commitment is essentially a guarantee offered by a government or financial institution to buy a certain amount of a product before it is ready for the market. That would allow factories everywhere to gear up and be ready for an unprecedented level of production.
“A large company may be able to do that if there’s a guaranteed purchase, but if you’re a developing-country vaccine manufacturer you may need some direct finance to be able to help you build these facilities,” said Cerrell.
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1:58 Coronavirus outbreak: ‘Operation Warp Speed’ in U.S. seeks vaccine by January 2021
Coronavirus outbreak: ‘Operation Warp Speed’ in U.S. seeks vaccine by January 2021
Dr. Seth Berkley, the head of GAVI, said there are 89 vaccines in development around the world, seven of which are in clinical trials, and that number could double to 200.
But the options need to be narrowed much sooner towards finding simpler vaccine that is the most effective, and easiest to mass-produce and administer.
2:26 Coronavirus around the world: April 30, 2020
Coronavirus around the world: April 30, 2020
“This is really going to be a challenge — getting billions of doses to the entire world, efficiently, is complex,” said Berkley, who pointed to the international co-operation on the Ebola virus as a model for how things could be done better.
Berkley and Cerrell were cautious about reports of promising research at Oxford University and elsewhere but stressed that a short list of promising projects needs to be developed.
“We don’t want to have a lot of inefficient money being thrown out there at dozens of things, most of which won’t work,” Cerrell said.
That also means breaking down barriers, including in national politics and in the competitive world of big pharma, to share the best, easiest solutions, said Gayle Smith, the head of the One Campaign, who previously served as an Obama-era National Security Council expert on the Ebola outbreaks in Africa during the last decade.
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During the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, “there was a scramble for a vaccine as soon as it became available. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it was the wealthier nations that were immediately able to secure the bulk of that product,” said Smith.
1:51 COVID-19 vaccine questions for back to school
COVID-19 vaccine questions for back to school
The world can’t afford a repeat of that with the much broader COVID-19 crisis, she said, calling for more transparency and better sharing of information.
But scientists from Canada’s foremost vaccine research laboratory said most countries will prioritize their own citizens, and Canada is no exception.
The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization — International Vaccine Centre at the University of Saskatchewan has developed a prototype COVID-19 vaccine due to start clinical trials in the autumn.
While the lab has received funding in the past from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has a mandate to make sure their technologies are made available internationally, Canada will still benefit first if their prototype is successful.
“I think what we will see is that countries will try to ensure that there is access to vaccines for their citizens,” said Dr. Volker Gerdts, CEO of the lab, told the Canada’s House of Commons health committee Thursday.
He said global access strategies are currently being developed, and Canada’s vaccine, if viable, would be shared with the world.
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0:45 Coronavirus outbreak: Dr. Tam says Canadians must ‘plan to live’ with COVID-restrictions for some time
Coronavirus outbreak: Dr. Tam says Canadians must ‘plan to live’ with COVID-restrictions for some time
Cerrell said the World Health Organization will play a key role in co-ordinating much of this work, and so will GAVI, which has immunized 760 million children and prevented 13 million deaths in the world’s poorest countries since 2020.
GAVI is seeking more than $8 billion in new five-year replenishments at a conference in June, while the European Union is leading the Monday kickoff of a pledging conference to support the WHO. It aims to raise more than $11 billion.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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