Health

'Vaccine nationalism' could lead to the coronavirus devastating public health and the economy, experts warn – CNBC

Published

4 years ago

July 10, 2020

A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Vaccine COVID-19” sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

“Vaccine nationalism” is turning the search for a Covid-19 cure into an arms race, which will ultimately damage the economy and public health, experts have warned.

Analysts at Eurasia Group speculated that tension over a vaccine would heat up over the summer, predicting a battle for access that will stretch into 2021 or 2022.

“Countries rich and poor will engage in aggressive procurement efforts with significant political, economic and public health implications,” they said in a note earlier this year. “Existing international institutions and agreements will struggle to minimize this ‘vaccine nationalism.'”

The research group argued that some governments were already attempting to seize first access through large-scale investments.

“In the U.S., the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA) has been spreading its investments across a number of vaccine candidates in an effort to reduce the financial risks for pharmaceutical firms and lock in priority access to a successful vaccine,” the note’s authors said.

BARDA has financial interests in Moderna‘s candidate vaccine and has invested in early research being conducted by French firm Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline.

In May, the U.S. also invested $1 billion in AstraZeneca‘s potential vaccine, which is being developed by scientists at the University of Oxford. The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant is aiming to produce 2 billion doses of the vaccine, with a view to roll 400 million doses out to the U.S. and U.K. by October.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine has also received multimillion dollar investments from the U.K. government and a $843 million payment from some EU countries, who have secured access to the vaccine should it prove to be effective.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government’s National Research Council has signed a deal with China’s CanSino Biologics to manufacture its vaccine for clinical trials in Canada this summer — giving Canada “an inside track on access,” according to Eurasia’s analysts.

Ian Goldin, professor of Globalisation and Development at the University of Oxford and ex-vice president of the World Bank, also warned there would be consequences if countries attempted to make the distribution of a vaccine a national enterprise.

“Some competition is healthy. You don’t want to put all your vaccine development eggs into one basket because it might not work,” he said. “But it shouldn’t be that the country with the deepest pockets is able to protect its citizens but in poor countries people die.”

Goldin said failing to inoculate the global population against Covid-19 would have long-term economic implications.

“As long as some parts of the world are suffering from the coronavirus, the global economy can’t recover,” he explained. “As long as it’s present somewhere, the virus can mutate, it can move, and parts of the world economy will be devastated.”

Speaking to CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” last week, Tara Raveendran, head of life sciences research at Shore Capital, said some researchers — such as those at BioNTech and Moderna — were developing mRNA vaccine technology, which could allow production to be scaled up easily.

However, she added that this might not be enough to offset certain countries’ early-access agendas.

“This idea that countries that can afford to, will move first to secure a resource that’s scarce and needs to be shared equally definitely raises issues,” she said. “Non-profits have put frameworks in place to try and ease this burden, but it’s something we as an industry need to address head on.”

Raveendran noted that while the stockpiling of Covid-19 vaccines would make developing them a commercially viable endeavour, it could come at a cost to public health.

“If we resolve the situation in developed markets and there’s still virus running rampant in other parts of the world, this is a problem for all of us,” she told CNBC. “We need to be very aware of how we distribute a very limited resource at the beginning.”

Goldin added that if the virus mutated in parts of the world that were unable to access the vaccine, Covid-19 would once again pose a threat to global public health, even for those who were immunized.

“We don’t know how long these vaccines will last and how effective they’ll be,” he said. “So it’s not a solution either on equity grounds or on self-interest grounds.”

‘A long way’ from vaccine discovery

Distribution and supply challenges are “much more solvable” than actually finding a vaccine that works, according to John Rountree, managing partner at Novasecta, who told CNBC “we’re a long way” from having an effective vaccine.

“Equitable access requires collaboration between pharma companies, governments, and patient-centric organizations, but I don’t have any doubt that it will be solved,” he said via telephone. “Pharma companies have interests in profitability for their shareholders. Governments have interests in having people treated. We’re all in the same game, so it will happen.”

Likening the vaccine development landscape to the space race of the 20th century, Rountree warned that vast government investments would not miraculously pave the way to an effective vaccine.

“Politicians can put aggressive timelines in, and it lends itself to putting a man on the moon,” he said. “In the end, you’re dealing with biology, which is a much more difficult problem than the engineering challenge of sending a man to the moon. And biology doesn’t follow timelines.”

President Donald Trump has voiced ambitions for a vaccine to be developed and distributed by the end of this year, in a project dubbed “Operation Warp Speed.” However, medical experts — including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert — have cast doubt on Trump’s goal.

There are currently at least 160 potential Covid-19 vaccines being tested around the world, according to the WHO.

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Health

Canada to donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to combat mpox outbreaks in Africa

Published

14 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.

It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.

Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”

Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.

Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.

On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.

Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”

But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”

“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.

Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.

Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.

Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.

“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.

“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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Health

How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

Published

2 days ago

September 11, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

Published

3 days ago

September 10, 2024

Anne Joseph

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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