{"id":50163,"date":"2021-04-28T10:07:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T09:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=50163"},"modified":"2021-05-04T10:54:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T09:54:19","slug":"enhancing-uk-action-and-promoting-equity-of-access-to-global-covid-19-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/04\/28\/enhancing-uk-action-and-promoting-equity-of-access-to-global-covid-19-vaccines\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing UK action and promoting equity of access to global covid-19 vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richer nations have a vital role to play in ensuring equity of access to covid-19 vaccines around the world, say Maggie Rae and Helen Stokes-Lampard<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As representatives of the UK\u2019s public health and medical workforce, we have come together to urge the government to go further and move faster in its actions to assure global access to covid-19 vaccines.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it is right that we celebrate the UK\u2019s progress on covid-19 vaccination, and crucial that we all continue to drive forward work on our domestic programme, we must also be ever cognisant that we cannot tackle covid-19 in isolation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The UK is an international leader in healthcare, as the mobilisation of our world-leading system in vaccine development and delivery has demonstrated. Having now ordered sufficient numbers of doses to vaccinate the domestic adult population four times over, it is incumbent upon the government to support low-income countries to more effectively deliver their own vaccination programmes.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the UK has already committed to sharing “surplus” doses, the government is yet to define which indicators will be used to determine at what point these doses should be shared with countries least able to secure supply. And though we support the leadership that the UK has already shown in committing \u00a3548 million funding to the Covax initiative, we must go further and with a sense of urgency; especially as we see the Covax programme running behind schedule due to production delays and pressures from multiple bilateral contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a globally interdependent world, unless we ensure that all countries can access and distribute the covid-19 vaccine effectively, we will continue to suffer the health and economic consequences of this global pandemic throughout the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from the loss of life and economic costs that will continue to be borne by countries unable to develop effective vaccination programmes, continued transmission of the virus risks creating further variants of concern and seeing them being brought into the UK. Costs to the global economy of vaccine inequity are estimated at $9.2 trillion. The huge impact of this on the economies of wealthy nations, and the massive further toll this will take on communities already at a disadvantage cannot be understated.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is important that we act to empower low and middle-income countries to produce and deliver vaccines locally. The UK should support the rapid development of the manufacturing capacity of trusted vaccine producers in developing countries. Actions to ensure this include removal of material intellectual property barriers in line with World Trade Organisation provisions, direct capital investment, and sharing of production processes.<\/span><\/p>\n

We must also remember that delivering a successful vaccination programme requires more than vials of vaccine. Effective networks of distribution are just as important as the material supply of the vaccine. The government must recognise our role as international health system leaders and share our knowledge and resource to support lower-income countries in overcoming the logistical challenges presented by vaccine delivery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building on the success of the UK vaccination programme to date, we call on the government to:<\/span><\/p>\n