Vaccine politics
For a moment there, I thought that COVID19 would bring the best out of all nations. The arrival of the vaccines brought with it a global sigh of relief. Knowledge that no one in the world is safe, unless we are all protected, I imagined an unprecedented coming together especially because for once, the burden of deaths from an infectious disease was being felt in wealthy nations.
When these wealthy nations started a speedy vaccination program, the world was pleased for them because it meant the number of deaths would go down drastically. Nations waited, hoping that when the most vulnerable were immunized, then most of the world would be able to have access to the vaccines.
Then something went amiss. Wealthy nations begun to stockpile vaccines. The stockpiling is nauseating, with reports that they have stockpiled over a billion vaccines in excess of what they actually need Rich nations stockpiling a billion more COVID-19 shots than needed: report | Reuters
The hasty greed did not consider expiry dates. Covid19 vaccines are not all easy to store and they do not keep for long. A hoarding game that actually ends up in the destruction of much needed vaccines is a very likely scenario. We have already seen this almost happen in Isreal : Israel may have to throw away nearly 1 million COVID vaccines | The Times of Israel
The shelf-life of both the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford as well as the Pfizer vaccine, is 6 months Storage requirements for each COVID-19 Vaccine – SPS – Specialist Pharmacy Service – The first stop for professional medicines advice
The AstraZeneca vaccine (also known as Covishield) can be stored in normal fridge temperatures (2 – 8°C), like other vaccines on most of the EPI programs in Africa, hence the reason why this is the preferred vaccine on the continent. However, if the vaccine is not used after 6 months in the fridge, it has to be destroyed.
The Pfizer vaccine has to be stored in temperatures of -80 to -60°C and beyond 6 months, also has to be destroyed. These vaccines can be kept in -25°C for no longer than 2 weeks and once thawed can be in a normal fridge for no more than a month Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shelf-life extended from 5 to 31 days, says MHRA – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Few African nations have sufficient quantities of -80°C freezers. Even if such vaccines were ‘donated’ within a month of expiry, they would need to be used up extremely rapidly and that would be impractical.
I will not be surprised if we begin to hear stories of African countries destroying vaccine ‘donations’. It’s like a friend buying all the bread from the bakery. You can smell the fresh bread from their house but there is none for you to buy. However, with a lot of fanfare, they give you a nicely wrapped loaf as a gift. You go home to unwrap your gift and find it all covered in mould. As they watch you bin it, they are cross that you are so ungrateful.
Don’t imagine that all other nations are standing around waiting for donations. It’s not all about begging for hand-outs. The reality is that any nation willing to buy Covid19 vaccines will find they cannot, because future stocks are already reserved by wealthy nations.
The big boy who goes into the playground, grabs all the toys and screams ‘ALL MINE!’ is on the vaccine playground. It would be funny, if it was not deadly.
