There are concerns COVID-19 vaccines won't be shared equitably around the world as the United States, Europe and other rich countries reserve the first doses for themselves.
Richard Hatchett, the head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations , is worried.
US President Donald Trump blazed this particular trail: His administration signed contracts guaranteeing at least 800 million doses from six manufacturers for a population of 330 million, to be delivered starting at the end of the year for some of the doses. "What we need to persuade global leaders is that as a vaccine becomes available in these initially limited quantities, it needs to be shared globally, that it shouldn't be the case that just a handful of countries get all of the vaccine that is available in the first half of 2021," said Mr Hatchett, who wants at all costs to avoid the scenario of 2009, when rich countries managed to bag the first vaccines of the H1N1 flu.
"While we have stayed in close touch with Moderna... for that small scale early stage agreement, you can't have those kinds of commitments," said Mr Hatchett. "That's one of the reasons that we are asking countries to now make their commitments to the facility so that we know on behalf of how many countries we're negotiating," said Mr Hatchett."The more countries that negotiate together, the stronger the purchasing power, and the easier the price."
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