After the rejection of the Vaccine Federation, Brazil will have difficulty reaching in 2022 – 06/25/2021

Starting in 2022, Brazil will have to face even greater difficulties if it is to expand its purchases of vaccine doses from the Covax consortium, set up by the World Health Organization.

At this week’s meeting, the Geneva-based mechanism decided it would amend its laws to expand vaccine distribution in the world’s poorest countries next year. But for that, it would discourage emerging economies like Brazil from expanding their purchases of vaccines.

The goal is to prioritize the most vulnerable and create laws that ultimately reduce the number of people involved in purchasing vaccines. It is expected that a third of the current 190 countries will not submit new applications.

In April 2020, the World Health Organization launched a project to try to prevent vaccine segregation in the world. The fund was established with the aim of collecting doses and ensuring the distribution of doses to the poorest countries. Initially Brazil did not join.

When he decided to be part of the project, he received an offer from Covax for 86 million doses, enough for 20% of its population. Even with the possibility of returning the money or giving up in the middle of the process, Brazil hesitated. Palácio do Planalto’s final decision will be to purchase only 43 million doses, the minimum set by regulators.

Since dose shortages were evident in Brazil, the government began speaking with the World Health Organization to assess the possibility of expanding Covax purchases.

But, in a decision issued this week, it was created by a mechanism that governments wishing to make new purchases would have to make a full payment for the entire order, before any delivery.

In other words: For countries like Brazil, South Africa, Mexico or Argentina, a new order of vaccines must be fully deposited in the booking process, which can create obstacles for governments.

Today, payment is made when doses are issued. But for Kovacs, that means the financial risk is on the agency. In addition, the situation still prevents further action by the consortium to ensure vaccinations for 92 of the world’s poorest countries.

Today, African countries have received only 1.5% of the world’s distributed vaccines. For the WHO, this is a “moral failure” and a new dimension of inequality.