Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    Opinion
    Home / Opinion / From the Press

    Politics of vaccine development is to dominate UK vaccine summit

    By Stephen Ndegwa | CGTN | Updated: 2020-04-27 16:00
    Share
    Share - WeChat
    A double-decker red bus passes by the Bank of England in London, Britain, March 6, 2019. /Xinhua

    On April 24, the United Kingdom announced that it will host the Global Vaccine Summit on June 4, 2020, virtually. The communique released by the UK government says the summit is an important milestone in supporting the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to "strengthen health systems around the world and help to tackle coronavirus in some of the world's poorest countries."

    The summit will also be crucial in securing support for GAVI's five-year strategy, which aims at immunizing 300 million children, and saving 8 million lives by 2025. Of course, these figures will now be reviewed in light of the emergence of the deadly coronavirus.

    The announcement for the UK summit was apt, having been made on the eve of World Malaria Day (WMD), which was celebrated on April 25. The theme of the international day was "Malaria: Status Update on Children."

    As the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) notes in its WMD bulletin, "the overlap of COVID-19 and malaria could have potentially highly lethal consequences for children under-five if we don't respond soon to ensure continuity of services."

    UNICEF notes that the major challenge of managing malaria in a highly charged COVID-19 environment is to ensure continuity of care-seeking behavior as people with fevers might push back on seeking treatment due to fear of contracting or spreading COVID-19.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently leading malaria vaccine trials in three African countries – Ghana, Malawi and Kenya – which it says were chosen in a competitive process.

    Recently, the WHO mobilized and gained consensus of the international community in accelerating research sharing on a coronavirus vaccine, as well as the sharing of research, treatment, and medicines on the pandemic.

    Countries that are currently engaged in COVID-19 vaccine initiatives include China, Germany, the UK, and the U.S., with all at advanced stages of clinical trials using human volunteers.

    The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major vaccine financier, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations are collaborating in what they tout as the fastest vaccine search in history.

    Speaking to BBC last week, the foundation's co-chairman Bill Gates said while it normally takes five or six years to develop a vaccine, he foresees a COVID-19 vaccine in 18 months. Indeed, current efforts are both lofty ambitions and desperate efforts.

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are six main stages in the development of a vaccine, including exploratory, pre-clinical, clinical development, regulatory review and approval, manufacturing and quality control.

    Vaccine development, as a rigorous multi-sectoral exercise, requires meticulous work from a variety of professionals and other stakeholders. Besides that, there are fears that the current race for a vaccine will disadvantage poor countries, as the rich ones might buy in massive volumes for both current use and stock ups.

    This time round poor countries are expressing a need for more transparency and accountability on vaccine testing. Previously, vaccine makers and their financiers have been accused of using citizens of developing countries as guinea pigs, by exploiting their prevalent poverty and weak governance systems.

    In Africa, the polio vaccine, whose development and production has been supported by the Gates Foundation, has been called out a few times by the Catholic Church for allegedly being laced with female contraceptives, among having other adverse health outcomes. The planned tests on the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine has, yet again, touched a raw nerve.

    In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday urged the country's citizens to ignore controversial views by BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh, who in a radio interview last week stated, "we are desperate for this vaccine to work but the team in Oxford… if they don't get early quick results from the UK they are considering a trial in Kenya where the epidemic of the coronavirus will be on the rise."

    We expect to hear similar politics as the advanced countries compete on who will be first past the line in the race of the vaccine against COVID-19.

    During the vaccine summit, poor countries are expected to lobby for the signing of a global agreement that ensures transparency in the vaccine development protocols, and a fair level of equity in the allocation of the vaccine.

    Ultimately, we need to heed the words of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who on Friday in an interview with ABC Australia observed, "we are blaming the Chinese for what happened. But the bottom line is we depend on the masks they make. If they are the ones that invent the vaccines, will we say no?"

    Most Viewed in 24 Hours
    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    精品无码国产自产拍在线观看蜜| 中文精品无码中文字幕无码专区| 久久亚洲AV无码精品色午夜麻豆 | 中文字幕一区一区三区| 国产成人无码a区在线视频| 中文一国产一无码一日韩| 天堂√中文最新版在线下载 | 99久久国产热无码精品免费久久久久 | 久草中文在线观看| 宅男在线国产精品无码| 玖玖资源站无码专区| 亚洲精品无码不卡在线播放HE | 台湾无码AV一区二区三区| 亚洲VA中文字幕无码一二三区| 亚洲国产精品无码久久| 日本阿v网站在线观看中文| 久久中文字幕无码专区| 日韩精品无码一区二区中文字幕 | 亚洲中文字幕无码久久2020| 久久久网中文字幕| 亚洲韩国—中文字幕| 亚洲精品无码永久中文字幕| 日韩亚洲变态另类中文| 亚洲人成无码网站久久99热国产| 国产精品99精品无码视亚| 日韩人妻无码精品一专区| 亚洲AV无码专区亚洲AV伊甸园| 韩日美无码精品无码| 久久无码专区国产精品发布| 中文无码精品一区二区三区| 中文字幕精品一区| 免费无码一区二区三区蜜桃| 超清无码熟妇人妻AV在线电影| 人妻少妇AV无码一区二区| 国产亚洲大尺度无码无码专线 | 亚洲熟妇无码AV在线播放| 中文字幕无码AV波多野吉衣| 亚洲AV无码日韩AV无码导航 | 无码专区国产无套粉嫩白浆内射| 精品国产毛片一区二区无码| 亚洲AV无码乱码在线观看性色扶|