Among the total 150 countries operational toward an international cooperative effort to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine- the UK, Canada, Switzerland, and Australia are the prominent among them.
As far as the effort to create and deliver the COVID-19 vaccine is concerned— it is more seen as an effort that will not include the US. This is because the Trump Administration said it “does not want to be constrained by multilateral groups like the World Health Organization.”
These vaccine candidates include four versions from the U.S., including Moderna’s vaccine that is currently in Phase III trials. Of the COVAX candidate vaccines, only the Moderna version and a second by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford are in the final trial stage. The other candidates still in preclinical, Phase I and Phase II development and testing hail from Germany, China, Australia and a multi-national partnership.
The COVAX facility is coordinated by Gavi, a non-profit devoted to reducing poverty and protecting against the treat of epidemics through vaccination.
This was supported by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Bank. Gavi describes COVAX as a “pooled procurement mechanism” for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccine(s) through an allocation framework currently being developed by WHO.
The success of COVAX hinges on countries not only signing up for the initiative, but also higher-income countries filling funding/R&D gaps to support lower-income countries.
After equally distributing approved vaccines to cover the most vulnerable groups in each partner country, COVAX will make additional doses available based on need, vulnerability and COVID-19 threat. The initiative will also maintain a buffer of doses for emergency use, including the possibility of another severe outbreak.
