This was published 2 years ago
Opinion
Generosity could collide with self-interest to tackle new variants
By Robert Booy and Gary Grohmann
For months, charities and institutions like the Immunisation Coalition have called on Australians, who are given free COVID vaccines, to give back and pay forward; donate to UNICEF to enable our less-advantaged neighbours to be rapidly vaccinated.
We’ve said: literally no one is safe from COVID-19 unless we all are.
International passengers arriving in Sydney on Sunday.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Vaccination prevents serious disease and can partially reduce transmission. There is almost unmitigated transmission in Asia and Africa which will (and just has again with Omicron) lead to worrying new mutants that can spread around the world in just days.
As the saying goes: “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi”, meaning “out of Africa, always something new”.
Here’s something else novel: could generosity collide with self-interest to help solve this?
UNICEF works through the global COVAX facility to procure and distribute vaccine to low-income countries. However, COVAX is struggling to secure vaccines for poorer countries because the wealthier ones have already bought up most of the available supply.
Rich countries like Australia already have high double vaccination rates and have more than enough vaccine to ensure all adults are offered a COVID booster, while children as young as five might soon be vaccinated too.
The federal government has ordered a huge supply, about 75 million doses more than we need, and hopes to have donated about 13 million doses by year’s end – including 4 million for Indonesia (1 per cent of what they need) – a seemingly substantial but ultimately small Christmas gift.
In all, 40 million doses (and $130 million) are promised to go overseas by the second quarter of 2022. The US has committed 1 billion doses for donation. Australia must do better; by thinking globally but acting both globally and locally. The world is all in the same sinking boat.
Might earlier, much more generous aid by Australia and other high-income countries have prevented the new Omicron variant from emerging? Perhaps. We must act now with real urgency to help our neighbours and prevent even worse viral variants from emerging.
South Africa has achieved about 25 per cent vaccine uptake. Most of Africa is under 5 per cent! As is Papua New Guinea, which also desperately needs our understanding and expertise to address rampant social media-driven hesitancy.
The Janssen and AstraZeneca products have been used in South Africa, supplied to COVAX at low, not-for-profit prices, up to 10 times less than the cost of mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, which have both made many billions in profit.
We should be demanding far more generosity from these companies and we should help other countries establish their own manufacturing sites to make vaccines. This is possible for all the current COVID-19 vaccines if patented knowledge and technology can be shared with interested countries. But some rich countries and companies have concerns about quality control and counterfeiting.
Are we doing everything in our power to end this pandemic? Right now the answer is no. Germany, UK and other wealthy nations continue to block the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Health Organisation.
It would temporarily suspend patent regulations to make COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics even more accessible to Asia and Africa. Ironically, the WTO Ministerial Conference last week – a critical meeting to approve a TRIPs waiver – was postponed due to the Omicron variant.
Australia could engage influenza vaccine company Seqirus to continue to make the AstraZeneca vaccine for global donation; but if the Omicron variant is AstraZeneca vaccine-evasive, Australia could rapidly pivot to produce mRNA vaccines for global and local use – where altruism and self-interest could meet!
Professor Robert Booy is a clinical epidemiologist and Dr Gary Grohmann is a consultant virologist. Both are honorary directors of the Immunisation Coalition.