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EU covid vaccine below highlight as Italy blocks cargo to Australia

EU covid vaccine under spotlight as Italy blocks shipment to Australia

Prepared syringes at the Brussels Expo Covid-19 vaccination center in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday March 5, 2021.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

LONDON – Europe’s launch of coronavirus vaccines has once again been in the spotlight after the Italian government blocked a shipment of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia.

The EU has made an effort to spread Covid-19 shots across the 27-person region and is lagging behind other advanced economies in terms of the number of vaccinations per citizen. There have been complaints that regulators are too slow to approve vaccines, manufacturing and delivery issues, and bureaucratic issues that are hampering the process.

However, new questions were raised on Thursday when Italy became the first EU country to apply the bloc’s new rules that allow exports to be halted if necessary. The move stopped around 250,000 doses of the vaccine from its Anagni, Italy facility that was being shipped to Australia.

The introduction of vaccines in Europe “will be an uphill battle,” Daniel Gros, director of the think tank at the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Belgium, told CNBC on Friday.

How the EU got here

At the end of January, the EU announced new rules that would allow European member states that manufacture coronavirus shots to ban their exports in the event that the pharmaceutical company concerned fails to comply with existing contracts with the bloc.

The EU and AstraZeneca were at odds with the drugmaker unable to fire as many shots as the bloc expected for the first quarter. There were also doubts about how many shots the company will deliver in the second quarter.

The EU is being toasted for what the US is doing in a more radical form.

Daniel Gros

Director of CEPS

Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, said late last month that the vaccine shortage was due to yield issues and that his company was working around the clock to increase production.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Friday morning that France could repeat Italy’s step. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn said there had been no reason to stop shipping vaccines made in Germany to other countries, according to Reuters.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said last month that around 95% of EU vaccines exported since late January were made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as both companies respected their agreement with the EU.

At the time, she also said the US and UK had systems in place to block exports of these vaccines.

Europe is being “roasted” for what others are doing too

“The EU is being roasted for something that the US is doing in a more radical form,” said Gros from the CEPS.

“The amount was tiny. But as always, people jump on symbols. The US doesn’t have the problem of having to stop vaccines at the border because no one would think of exporting anything from the US,” he added.

In an executive order in early December, then-President Donald Trump ordered that the US should only export vaccines made in the country once it was determined that there were sufficient doses to vaccinate the American population.

“Now that it is determined that there is adequate supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses for all Americans who choose to vaccinate, allies, partners and others need to facilitate international access to COVID-19 vaccines for the US government and in accordance with applicable law, “says the regulation.

Delivery to Australia has been blocked as the country is not on the EU’s list of nations at risk. The EU regulation exempts distribution to poorer nations from being blocked by the member states.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a news conference Friday that the country’s vaccination program would “continue unabated”, adding that the broadcast in question was not what they had anticipated for the rollout.

Australia has reportedly asked the European Commission to review Italy’s decision to block the broadcast. However, Morrison admitted that he understood why there would be high levels of concern in Italy and across Europe.

“We should not forget that the EU is providing vaccines for the south of the world and at the same time preventing this delivery to Australia,” Alberto Alemanno, professor of European law at HEC Paris, told CNBC on Friday.

He added that “the EU export control regulation embodies the EU’s legitimate attempt to gain some sovereign autonomy”.

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Detroit mayor rejects preliminary J&J vaccine cargo, calls Pfizer, Moderna ‘the very best’

Detroit mayor rejects initial J&J vaccine shipment, calls Pfizer, Moderna 'the best'

Vial of the Janssen Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine from Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson via Reuters

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan turned down an initial allocation of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 single vaccine this week, according to the Michigan State Department of Health.

At a news conference Thursday, Duggan confirmed that he had refused to grant J&J vaccines from the state this week, citing sufficient supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to meet demand from eligible residents.

“Johnson & Johnson is a very good vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer are the best. And I’ll do everything I can to make sure the Detroit city residents get the best,” Duggan said at a news conference Thursday.

The FDA on Saturday approved J & J’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use. This makes it the third vaccine approved for distribution in the United States and the only vaccine that requires only one dose.

Clinical trial data shows that J & J’s vaccine provides 66% overall protection against Covid, compared to around 95% for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. While some have raised concerns about the J&J vaccine’s lower rate of effectiveness, the J&J vaccine has been shown to prevent 100% of virus-related hospitalizations and deaths, according to clinical trial data.

“All vaccines are safe and effective, and I recommend that all vaccines be offered in all communities,” said Dr. Michigan chief medical executive Joneigh Khaldun in a statement to CNBC.

“Also, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine has been studied in a more recent period of time with more easily transmissible variants, so I would not recommend comparing the Pfizer and Moderna studies directly with the Johnson and Johnson studies,” Khaldun said.

At a news conference on Friday, Andy Slavitt, Senior White House Covid Advisor, said Duggan’s comments on the J&J vaccine had been misunderstood.

“We have had a constant dialogue with Mayor Duggan … He is very excited about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. And I think we want to reiterate the message that the very first vaccine we can take makes perfect sense for all of us is take, “said Slavitt.

In a statement later Friday, Duggan reiterated the effectiveness of the J&J shot in preventing hospitalizations and Covid-related deaths.

“The only reason we decided not to take the first shipment from Johnson & Johnson was because we had the capacity with Moderna and Pfizer to handle the 29,000 first and second dose appointments planned for the coming week which has already brought us very close to our capacity at our current locations, “Duggan said in a statement on Friday.

The J&J allotment, rejected by Duggan, comprised 6,200 doses that were distributed to other local Michigan health departments, according to Bob Wheaton, spokesman for the state health department.

Wheaton said the state doesn’t expect to receive any more J&J vaccines “for a few weeks.”

Duggan said the city will open a new vaccination site for J&J shots if demand from eligible residents exceeds supply of Moderna and Pfizer cans.

“We always planned to distribute Johnson & Johnson as soon as demand warranted it, and we had our distribution plan so we could make it available to our residents as much as Moderna and Pfizer,” Duggan said in Friday’s statement. “By the time the next J&J broadcast arrives, we’ll have our plan to make it available.”

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First COVAX vaccine cargo arrives in Ghana, hope for creating world

First COVAX vaccine shipment arrives in Ghana, hope for developing world

A shipment of Covid-19 vaccines from the global COVAX vaccination program will arrive at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana on February 24, 2021.

Nipah Dennis | AFP | Getty Images

The first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines, delivered under the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, arrived in Ghana on Wednesday. This is a hopeful turning point for developing countries, who may be lagging behind in the global race to vaccinate a virus that has killed nearly 2.5 million people worldwide.

The flight brought 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is believed to be far easier to distribute in developing countries because it does not require extremely cold storage temperatures like the Pfizer-GenTech and Moderna vaccines.

The vaccines delivered on Wednesday will be prioritized for frontline medical professionals, those over 60 and those with pre-existing health conditions, according to the Ghanaian Ministry of Information.

“Today is the historic moment for which we have planned and worked so hard,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in a joint statement from her agency and WHO Ghana.

“With the first shipment of cans, we can deliver on the promise of the COVAX Facility to ensure that people from less affluent countries are not left behind in the race for life-saving vaccines.”

Airport workers transport a shipment of Covid-19 vaccines from Covax’s global Covid-19 vaccination program onto dolls at Kotoka International Airport in Accra on February 24, 2021.

Nipah Dennis | AFP | Getty Images

COVAX is a global plan jointly led by WHO, an international vaccine alliance called Gavi, and the Coalition for Innovation in Epidemic Preparation.

While wealthier nations drive costly vaccine development and procurement, poorer countries suffer the consequences of inequality. Mark Suzman, executive director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in December that it may be too late for the vaccines to be distributed fairly as rich countries have already closed massive deals.

Wealthy nations, making up just 14% of the world’s population, had secured 53% of the world’s top performing coronavirus vaccines by December, according to a group of human rights activists called the People’s Vaccine Alliance.

COVAX was founded to ensure fair access to vaccines worldwide. By the end of 2021, 20% of people in the 92 poorest countries in the world are to be vaccinated through donations. Several other middle-income countries will purchase vaccines through COVAX on a self-funded basis. The plan this year is to deliver 2 billion doses of vaccines that have been recognized by WHO as safe and effective.

The recordings shipped to Ghana were produced by the Indian Serum Institute, which has been granted access to the intellectual property that enables it to manufacture vaccines based on the Oxford-AstraZeneca formula. The African Union has secured around 670 million doses of the Serum Institute’s vaccine for its member countries. The goal is for 60% of the 1.3 billion people in Africa to be vaccinated in the next two to three years.

“By far the fastest of all time”

“This is amazingly important. We want the gap between vaccinating the rich and the poor to be narrowed to zero,” said Hassan Damluji, assistant director of global politics and advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in an interview with Wednesday CNBC.

“We know that it usually takes decades for a vaccine to be developed and used for the first time in rich countries and then to reach the poorest people in the world. So Ghana receives its first shipment, just three months after the first vaccine rollouts World are more than extraordinary, “he said. “It is by far the fastest ever.”

A health worker applies a Sinovac CoronaVac Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine to an elderly Citzen on February 18, 2021 in Sao Goncalo, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ricardo Moraes | Reuters

The Gates Foundation has spent $ 1.75 billion fighting the coronavirus and has focused on vaccine development within COVAX.

Damluji noted that the program’s vaccine sourcing for poor countries was funded entirely by donors at a time when every developed world economy is in recession. “So it’s pretty remarkable,” he said.

Vaccine inequality will plunge countries into deeper poverty

The exclusion of poor countries from vaccination programs launched in wealthier countries will have devastating and lasting consequences, warn economists and public health experts that dramatically increase inequalities, hinder social and economic development and leave dozens of countries in significantly higher debt.

These inequalities, according to Oxford Economics, mean that the long-term economic damage of the pandemic will be twice as severe in emerging markets as it is in developed countries. A study by the RAND Corporation predicts the global economy will lose $ 153 billion in production annually if emerging economies do not get access to vaccines.

The countries of the COVAX donation plan are to receive doses that are appropriate for their populations: Afghanistan, for example, will receive 3 million doses, while Namibia will receive almost 130,000.

The Palestinian Territories expect to receive vaccines through COVAX in March. Iran and Iraq are part of COVAX, as are many lower-income countries in the Middle East. The wealthier Gulf States have sourced their own vaccine supplies directly from the manufacturers, while some, despite their own recessions, also contribute to the COVAX fundraising pool: Saudi Arabia donated $ 300 million and Qatar donated $ 10 million.

The U.S. hadn’t made a contribution to the COVAX facility under the Trump administration, but the Biden administration has pledged the largest donation to date – $ 4 billion.

Damluji pointed out the challenges of COVAX’s goals by running extensive vaccination campaigns in countries with faulty infrastructure, limited logistics and transportation, remote populations, and in some cases violence and war.

“This stuff is a moving target. Rightly the world’s attention is on it and wants to make sure it goes well,” he said. “But a few months ago we didn’t even know which vaccines would work. And now people need them on their doorstep.”

“There will be some complications as well,” he added. “It’s the biggest health procurement effort ever.”