Gavi – The Vaccine Alliance, that legally administers the COVAX Facility, has had to do some serious stock-taking in rethinking its role in the international response to COVID-19. This week the Gavi Board approved proposals, among others, to redefine the way the COVAX Facility engages with Self-Financing Countries and the way it plans to service low- and middle-income countries in the future. It is also an acknowledgement of the limitations faced by the structure that has been set up and constrained by the donors of the COVAX Facility. According to Gavi, over 80 million doses from COVAX have been delivered to 129 … Continue reading A Moment of Reckoning for the COVAX Facility

Vaccine Indemnity and The COVAX Facility Some manufacturers have demanded indemnity against the introduction of vaccines, from countries. We wanted to know how this ties in with The COVAX Facility’s no-fault compensation fund. Here are some responses from a spokesperson from Gavi – The Vaccine Alliance. (See our earlier story on these issues) [GHF] 1. Why did Facility leave the question of indemnity to individual countries participating in the Facility? The foundational goal of COVAX is global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, which includes working to ensure that ability to pay is not a barrier to access. As we strive towards this goal at … Continue reading The demand for vaccine indemnity from countries & the terms of COVAX

The challenges for the world’s most vulnerable in accessing vaccine doses to protect themselves from a devastating pandemic gets more acute every week. Only 0.3% of the vaccine supply is going to low-income countries. COVAX has so far delivered 65 million doses to 124 countries. The surge in cases has compromised global vaccine supply and there is already a shortfall of 190 million doses to COVAX by the end of June, WHO has said. UNICEF was more direct in encapsulating the failure of the international mechanism: “The COVAX Facility will deliver its 65 millionth vaccine dose this week. It should’ve been at least its … Continue reading At Risk: COVAX Plans to Vaccinate 20% of the People in LMICs

DOSE-SHARING: THE PLAN B FOR COVAX THAT RESTS ON BENEVOLENCE In December 2020, Gavi spelt out the COVAX principles on dose-sharing for COVID-19 vaccines. Authorities had hoped that countries who had bought more doses than they require would be amenable to sharing the doses through the COVAX Facility. This was, what now seems like a far less challenging time, before the emergence of the variants, subsequent waves of the pandemic, vaccine shortages, export bans and legal threats between countries and manufacturers. Not only has the situation exacerbated, unforeseen supply challenges have emerged for the COVAX facility in the context of the resurgence … Continue reading COVAX counts on dose-sharing to counter vaccine crunch, vaccine diplomacy makes it worse

The logic underpinning the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines secured by The COVAX Facility The COVAX Facility is using an allocation algorithm to distribute COVID-19 vaccines globally. The underlying logic determines how countries line up to receive vaccines in a period of acute scarcity when less than 250 million vaccine doses expected to be distributed among more than 7 billion people worldwide in the first half of 2021 through the Facility. COVAX published its first round of allocations earlier this week that seeks to deliver 237 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to 142 countries. According to WHO’s allocation mechanism, the first phase will … Continue reading The COVAX Allocation Algorithm for Vaccine Distribution