Global medical aid group MSF has savaged Australia and other rich countries for taking more than our share.
Medecins Sans Frontieres has accused the Australian government of hoarding COVID vaccines and urged it to consider the world’s most vulnerable before inoculating its own population.
In a video bluntly titled “How to prolong a global pandemic”, which heads its latest newsletter, MSF Australia executive director Jennifer Tierney says wealthy countries have acquired more than their share of vaccines.
“Australia has made deals to acquire more than three times the amount of vaccine that it needs to inoculate its entire population,” she says.
“And yet one of the most contagious and deadly strains of the virus is ripping through southern Africa right now. It’s killed more than 1000 frontline healthcare workers and is filling hospitals with patients … We have to vaccinate those populations now. Yet wealthy countries are monopolising the vaccine.”
The newsletter says just 16 per cent of the world’s population has already secured 60% of the world’s vaccine supply.
Australia has deals for 150 million doses including:
- 20 million Pfizer
- 53.8 million AstraZeneca (most produced domestically)
- 51 million Novavax
- 25.5 million of a range of vaccines to be provided through the COVAX facility
MSF calls on the Australian government to ensure more equitable distribution in three ways:
· Back a proposal put forward to the World Trade Organization that would stop patents from getting in the way of production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and personal protective equipment.
· Respect WHO’s equitable allocation framework for COVID-19 vaccines where 3% of the world’s most at-risk groups must get immunised first. Only then can Australia start vaccinating the wider community.
· Allocate COVID-19 vaccines to a humanitarian stockpile as initiated by the World Health Organization and organisations including MSF. In our experience we see that too often people in crisis-affected humanitarian contexts including refugees, asylum seekers, marginalised populations and people living in conflict areas, are left behind. These are populations that invariably have the least access to or are excluded all together from national health services.
MSF is demanding increased global supply, affordability and transparency, including through the waiving of intellectual property rights by pharmaceutical companies.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Greg Hunt defended Australia’s actions, telling TMR: “Australia has committed $80 million through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment mechanism to improve access to safe, effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccines for 92 countries around the world.Â
“There is no higher priority for countries in our region than access to COVID-19 vaccines, which will help economies reopen and ensure stability.
“We are facing the same challenges in Australia as our neighbours face, and we recognise our shared future prosperity depends on all our countries, making it through the pandemic, together.
“The Australian Government has committed $523 million over three years to providing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for 18 countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. We will be guided by, and support, country-led vaccination strategies to provide end to end support. This includes technical advice for planning such as supply chain distribution; assessments of vaccine safety, efficacy and quality; and help to roll out critical public health information.”
