The international community has been heavily affected ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 which the world did not witness in the contemporary era.

covid vaccine — Coronavirus Vaccine – PH Daniel Schludi

Covid-19 global pandemic: people have been affected, lives have been lost. Daily lives of individuals have been disrupted because of worldwide lockdown. Domestic and international travel restrictions and no source of income for those people whose household ran on daily basis incomes.

The countries all over the world had been suffering. The global healthcare system faced major challenges to deal and contain the spread of the virus all over the world. The economic and social impact created by the pandemic remains extremely damaging. Thousands of people are at the brink of severe poverty and unemployment and even risk of losing jobs.

With global consumption of medicines, suppliers of medication and personal safety devices increasing, countries have been working rigorously to come up with a solution to save lives and stabilize the world. Thus, it was apparent that a worldwide issue such as this will gradually need a global systematic approach focused on public-private partnership related to international health collaboration.

Nonetheless, the work of making and developing vaccines against Covid-19 had begun in the mid 2020 and with it began the vaccine diplomacy. The development of the Covid-19 vaccine would be used to show the efficacy and rapid progress of the nation’s health care system as well as the complexity of its scientific analysis.

From almost the initial days, the major countries of China, Russia, the United States, India and the United Kingdom gave great strategic importance to the ambitious worldwide vaccination roll-out. It is therefore no surprise that the concept of global health diplomacy – including vaccine diplomacy – has developed into an important foreign policy point from China to the USA everywhere.

In April 2020, the World Health Organization, European Commission and France launched COVAX in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

COVAX is among the three elements of the Access to the Covid-19 tools (ACT) Accelerator. ACT Accelerator is a partnership platform to speed up Covid-19 research, diagnosis, vaccines development, production and equal access.

The three primary components are: vaccines (COVAX), therapeutics and diagnostics. COVAX is an attempt to make sure that, irrespective of their income, individuals in every corner of the world get access to Covid-19 vaccines. By the end of 2021, the intended target will be to have two billion doses, sufficient to secure risky and vulnerable people and health professionals at the forefront.

COVAX is co-led by the World Health Organization, GAVI, and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) and in partnership with vaccine manufacturers in developed and developing countries. As a framework within the COVAX facility, Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) aims at ensuring equal access of Covid19 vaccine in 92 medium and lower income countries that cannot completely afford the Covid-19 vaccines on their own.

Gavi was launched in 2000 as a global vaccine alliance, bringing together all the public and private sectors to ensure fair access for children living in the world’s poorest countries to the new vaccines. The WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are key collaborators. Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI), is a global partnership launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future pandemics.

The governments of Norway and India, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Welcome Trust and the World Economic Forum have founded CEPI in Davos (Switzerland) Vaccines are the most effective preventive treatments that modern medicine has developed.

Global, equal, and sustainable supplies of vaccines are needed for low- and middle-income countries. A small number of developed countries with only 16% of the world’s population have stocked up 60% of global vaccine supply.

The WHO General Director blamed drug makers from developed countries for their moral hypocrisy for halting vaccine delivery and restricting shipments only to rich countries.

Countries like India and China has started Vaccine diplomacy to gain international applauds and goodwill among neighbours in order to achieve larger foreign policy objectives.

It remains unclear how more than 90 medium and lower-class countries will receive fair amount of Covid-19 vaccine to protect their populations.