SIG COVID19 BR debates Covax initiative

- 13/11/2020

Once again, SIG COVID19 BR, of Rede Universitária de Telemedicina (RUTE), raised the debate about a highly relevant subject for the time of pandemics we live. On Monday, 11/9, the virtual meeting addressed the Covax initiative, created by the organization Gavi (The Vaccine Alliance) to facilitate the access to the vaccine against the new coronavirus around the planet. Ph. D. of International Relations and senior manager of the organization, Thiago Luchesi, directly from Geneva, Switzerland, presented the goals of the project and was moderated by Dr. Miriam Tendler, doctor and researcher at Fiocruz.

In the introduction, Dr. Thiago pointed out the importance of the vaccines for the immunization of the populations, mainly children, revealing impressive data “Immunization is one of the interventions that most affects children in the world. There are a billion doses given to children worldwide  every year. More than 30 vaccines are given to children every second on the planet,” he said.

Then, the partners of GAVI were presented, this is a global alliance created in 2000 with the purpose to promote access to vaccines, focused on underdeveloped countries. Among the partners, there are the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef. “The idea is to take the best of each partner and work together. We work with the vaccine producers, the countries, civil society, donors, research agencies and each of them plays a role,” explained Dr. Luchesi.

Vaccine against Covid-19 for all
Regarding Covax, a collaboration between the Coalition for the Promotion of Innovations in the Combat to Epidemics (Cepi), Gavi and WHO was created to “avoid there to be a rush from each country to buy doses from the pharmaceutical industry. The vaccine supply would be totally impaired this way. There is no sense to end the disease in one country. The idea was to join forces to try to resolve this issue, or at least end the acute phase”.

The initiative works in the following way: the vaccine demands of the countries are gathered, and based on this global demand, whether  the price can negotiated with the pharmaceutical industries and how to make the distribution, avoiding polarized solutions. One global solution.

“The data was collected at astonishing speed and 184 countries joined the initiative, corresponding to 85% of the world population. The idea is low-income countries not to pay. This is done from a donation fund. Within the group, 92 countries will have the vaccines subsidized. Brazil is part of Covax and has requested vaccines for 10% of the population. It will finance them, but paying a much more affordable price” Dr. Thiago Luchesi said.

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