As you must have heard, Pfizer is working on a new vaccine for Coronavirus that has a 90% efficacy rate. Be that good news as it may, you need to know more about it!
1. Difference Between Efficacy and Effective Rates
Efficacy rates refer to the maximum response achievable from a pharmaceutical drug in research settings. In that case, yes the vaccine has a 90% rate. However, effectiveness means how many people it can cure per se.
The vaccine’s effective rate is questionable because currently, it is working under completely controlled settings. Would it work in real-life scenarios? We’re not sure.
2. The Exclusivity of The Vaccine
Almost 3 billion people in low-income countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America will most likely be unable to access the COVID-19 vaccine. This can be the case for years after it becomes available.
3. COVAX
The COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX, is a joint effort by many countries. 184 countries are working with international organizations to make it possible for people all around the world to gain access. The vaccine is yet to be made available for everyone but the efforts to make sure it is not exclusive have started.
Thus far, COVAX has raised an estimated US$1.8 billion towards an initial target of $2 billion. This target was to cover the cost of manufacturing and distributing COVID-19 vaccines around the world. The goal is to produce 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
However, the problem arises when many rich countries start taking part in separate negotiations. They are striking their own deals apart from COVAX to assure that they will get early access to a vaccine.
4. What Can Be The Problems Of Supply?
Most effective and promising vaccines require constant and extremely cold storage. In poorer areas where there are no roads let alone cool storage facilities, transferring the vaccine will be difficult. There are areas where access to electricity is unreliable or missing altogether or there aren’t enough health facilities with the required refrigeration capacity.
Moreover, nearly 3 billion people around the world live in places lacking the temperature-controlled storage needed. Additionally, there are not enough health workers to administer the vaccines too. It is unrealistic to expect many people in poorer communities to travel to health clinics.
5. There Is Hope
We’re getting ready for COVID-19 vaccines with enough syringes to wrap around the world one and a half times.#VaccinesWork pic.twitter.com/7HCYuIzsQV
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) October 30, 2020
As of October 2020, the World Bank planned to provide US$12 billion. These funds will be used to finance vaccine acquisition and deployment in low- and middle-income countries.
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