Notably absent is the United States, which
made headlines earlier this month when the Trump administration said it would not participate in the effort.
There are two pieces to the COVAX effort.
While the COVAX Facility is all about getting access to vaccines, there is also a funding arm, called the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, which is trying to make sure that low-income countries have a spot at the table. If all goes according to plan, any eventual doses would be shared among a mix of high-income countries, such as Canada, that have contributed financially, and also poorer countries that are supported by donations.
According to the release, this second part has a target of raising US $2 billion by the end of the year, and currently it has about $700 million, raised from donor countries, the private sector and philanthropists.
There also 92 low- and middle-income countries that are eligible to receive vaccines through the COVAX facility, according to Gavi.
“This means that 156 economies, representing roughly 64% of the global population in total, are now either committed to or eligible for the COVAX Facility, with more to follow,” Gavi said in a release.
“COVAX is now in business: Governments from every continent have chosen to work together, not only to secure vaccines for their own populations, but also to help ensure that vaccines are available to the most vulnerable everywhere,” Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said in a statement.
“With the commitments we’re announcing today for the COVAX Facility, as well as the historic partnership we are forging with industry, we now stand a far better chance of ending the acute phase of this pandemic once safe, effective vaccines become available.”
COVAX is not Canada’s only plan to procure vaccines.
The federal government has signed advanced purchase agreements with four different biopharmaceutical companies should any of their candidates pass both clinical testing and Health Canada approval, in a move that has drawn accusations from some health and policy experts that this country is engaging in “
vaccine nationalism.”
In an interview last week, federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand said that Canada was supportive of “the objectives and principles” of the COVAX Facility, as the only global procurement mechanism that allows countries to share risk.
