It's time to talk about COVAX…

COVAX is the global vaccine procurement facility.

It is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI); Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; & the World Health Organization (WHO).

Good intentions, but we have some questions…

COVAX was created to help low- and middle-income countries access vaccines by sharing risk and pooling procurement and is largely funded by governments.

The EU, US, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, and several other governments have pledged and donated billions to COVAX.

This is, of course, welcome. The money will will subsidise the vaccine bills for 92 low-income governments.

But there's a problem...

Charitable donations are simply not a sufficient response & fall short of what’s needed to maximise vaccine production for all.

The core problem is vaccine scarcity. There are simply not enough doses being produced.

In short: Money doesn't help if there are no vaccines to buy

COVAX’s aim to be “a global solution for equitable access” is great. But many low- and middle-income countries rightly worry they will experience significant delays in accessing vaccines...

...especially since high-income governments have already prebooked hundreds of millions of vaccine doses in an environment where vaccine supply will continue to be scarce and the logistics of transportation challenging.

COVAX began delivering vaccine doses in late February.

It had only been able to deliver 49 million doses (to over 100 countries) as of 30 April.

Remember: global vaccine need is in the billions, so tens of millions of doses here & there is no doubt good, but insufficient.

COVAX aims to vaccinate only 20% of every participating country’s population.

That’s far from what is needed to reach herd immunity (estimated at 70% minimum) in countries that rely heavily on it as their source of vaccines.

Even this limited, insufficient goal may be out of reach, as COVAX faces a significant funding shortfall...

https://www.gavi.org/news/media-room/covax-reaches-over-100-economies-42-days-after-first-international-delivery

And, bizarrely, many of the rich governments donating to COVAX are the exact same ones blocking wider vaccine production globally by obstructing the #TRIPSwaiver at the WTO.

Regular readers of the daily thread-cast know this already, of course... https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1391651783806701571

But here's what you may not know - and what journalists might want to start asking some questions about:

COVAX's human rights policies and practices...

COVAX has a transparency problem.

COVAX has yet to publish all its contracts surrounding vaccine research & development, and procurement, and to publicly disclose additional details related to country and industry participation, and pricing.

COVAX says disclosure would violate confidentiality obligations...

...but instead of relying on confidentiality clauses, COVAX should ensure that its work is fully aligned with UNICEF’s longstanding practice of price transparency.

COVAX should publish all its contracts to facilitate accountability over public expenditure.

It's not just me saying that. It's Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Public Citizen saying it:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/06/covax-enhance-transparency-share-intellectual-property

COVAX says it's “working with manufacturers committed to minimal profit pricing,” but it has not yet published details re procurement pricing & profits in its agreements with vaccine developers & manufacturers.

COVAX also has yet to publicly commit to verifying such pricing through a third-party audit.

Governments and other donors funding COVAX should demand maximum transparency and accountability.

A lot of this is public money, after all.

We should know what's being bought in our name, with our money, and at what price.