A Quarter of the World’s Population need to wait till 2022 for Covid Vaccine

According to a new research, it will take almost an year for almost a quarter of the world’s population to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Which means that many of the global population will not have access to a Covid-19 vaccine until 2022.

Scientists from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US said that countries with strong economic conditions have already secured billions of doses, with uncertainty around access for middle and low-income countries.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ), pointed out that, of the 48 Covid-19 vaccines currently in development or approved, 13 manufacturers have entered into agreements for at least 7.48 billion doses.

“High-income countries, including the European Union bloc, have reserved 51% of these doses, or around 3.85 billion doses, though they comprise only 13.7% of the world’s population,”

“Of the 13 manufacturers, only six have sold to low and middle-income countries.” the journal said.

AstraZeneca/Oxford University and Novavax are some amongst those six companies.

The experts said that, people in poorer countries could face a long wait even if the manufacturers meet all their production estimates.

They said: “By the end of 2021 up to 40% of Covid-19 vaccine courses from leading manufacturers might potentially remain for low and middle-income countries – less if high-income countries scale up existing purchases, more if these countries share what they have procured,”

They also added that even if these leading manufacturers were all to succeed in reaching their projected maximum production capacity, nearly a quarter of the world’s population would not have access to a vaccine until at least 2022.

As per the Johns Hopkins researchers, Covax has made initial purchases of 300 million vaccine doses from AstraZeneca/Oxford University, plus an additional 200 million doses from either AstraZeneca/Oxford University or Novavax, all with a ceiling price of $3 (€2.46) per dose.

But this adds up to only a quarter of the at least two billion doses sought by Covax by the end of 2021, they said.

The researchers said that this study provides an overview of how high-income countries have secured future supplies of Covid-19 vaccines, but that access for the rest of the world is uncertain.

“Governments and manufacturers might provide much needed assurances for equitable allocation of Covid-19 vaccines through greater transparency and accountability over these arrangements.” they said

Another study in the BMJ estimates that 3.7 billion adults worldwide are willing to have a Covid-19 vaccine.