Vaccinating people in rich countries against Covid-19 and leaving out poor nations will cause significant economic damage for both developing and advanced economies, a new report shows.
The report assesses the economic benefits to advanced economies who contribute to a fund that will buy Covid-19 vaccine doses for developing nations including Kenya.
At least nine vaccine candidates have been registered with the facility, being, managed by the World Health Organisation.
The fund still has a significant funding gap of US$ 28.2 billion.
If that shortfall is not met, low- and low-middle income countries will have delayed access to the vaccine in 2021.
This may result in a protracted pandemic, with severe economic consequences not just for these countries by also for the wider global economy, WHO said.
The fund is called the Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT Accelerator), but its vaccine’s arm is called the Covax Facility.
“Countries will be remembered for how they stepped up to help others during this unprecedented crisis,” says the report, titled Ending the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Need for a Global Approach.
Global political risk research and consulting firm, Eurasia Group produced the report after being commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
It was released on Thursday as world leaders gathered virtually at the two-day Special Session of the General Assembly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The meeting was not planned not raise money to finance vaccine immunisations or take any political action, and there was be no final declaration.
The report analyses ten major economies – Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States – to assess the economic benefits to advanced economies of contributing to the common vaccines pool.
It finds that the economic benefits of a global equitable vaccine solution alone for the 10 countries included in the analysis would be at least US$ 153 billion in 2020-21, rising to US$ 466 billion by 2025.
This figure was compiled using the expected negative effects of sustained coronavirus outbreaks in low and lower middle income countries, based on the downside and baseline scenarios of the IMF’s October 2020 World Economic Outlook forecasts.
So far, the 10 countries featured in the report have contributed $2.4 billion to the fund.
Covax, the vaccines pillar of the ACT Accelerator, has the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of vaccines.
WHO boss Tedros Adhanom said: “Contributing to the ACT Accelerator it is not just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing for all countries – socially, economically and politically.”
Hassan Damluji, deputy director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, added: “It is both the right thing to do, and an investment that will pay dividends by bringing the global economy back from the brink, benefiting all nations.”
