Indonesia's G20 presidency also seeks to encourage collective efforts to ensure equitable and comprehensive access to health services. This includes access to vaccines and diagnostic tools in handling Covid-19.
By
DEONISIA ARLINTA, SKA
·5 minutes read
TIMOTHY A. CLARY
Volunteers supporting global health and justice hold a demonstration in front of Pfizer Headquarters in New York, United States, Thursday (11/3/2021). They called on pharmaceutical companies and President Joe Biden's government to commit to the equitable and fair distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.
BADUNG, KOMPAS — Civil 20 (C20), a community group in the Group of 20 (G20) forum, this week discussed various schemes so all countries have access to the Covid-19 vaccine. Equal distribution of the vaccines can be done through donations, transfer of technology or the suspension of vaccine patents.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made visible the inequality in global health access. According to the coordinator of the C20 Global Health and Vaccine Access Working Group, Agung Prakoso, Africa is the region with the smallest Covid-19 vaccination achievement, with less than 10 percent of the total population vaccinated.
"At the same time, developed countries have given booster vaccinations to their population," said Agung at one of the C20 discussions in Badung, Bali, on Tuesday (8/3/2022). "The C20 will convey several priority issues [to the G20], namely expanding access to vaccines," he added.
One of the causes of this inequality is the difference in purchasing power for vaccines between developed and developing countries. In January 2021, the European Union was recorded to have purchased 1.6 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, the equivalent of 3.5 doses per person. The United Kingdom purchased 367 million doses of the vaccine, which is equivalent to 5.5 doses per person.
Canada bought 362 million doses of vaccines, or the equivalent of 9.6 doses per person. Meanwhile, Africa was recorded purchasing 270 million vaccines, which is only equivalent to 0.2 vaccine doses per person.
The C20 also encourages vaccine access to be expanded, especially to poor countries. Guillermina Alaniz from the C20 International Advisory Committee said vaccine donation was the best option. The equal distribution of vaccines could also be achieved by providing access to finance and sharing technology.
Another way is to encourage independent vaccine production. The World Health Organization has set up an mRNA vaccine technology transfer center (vaccine hub) so low- and middle-income countries could produce their own vaccines. Several countries have been appointed by the WHO as recipients, including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Indonesia.
AFP/GETTY IMAGES/MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO
People gather for a protest to demand German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Pfizer make the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine and treatments more accessible in front of the German Consulate on July 14, 2021in Manhattan in New York, New York. Global health activists, doctors, health workers and others gathered at the German consulate and marched to the Pfizer headquarters to demand a more equitable plan by pharmaceutical companies and wealthy nations when it comes to access to the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine and treatments for the disease, and asking for efforts to waive the intellectual property of the vaccine that would allow for global production to overcome the scarcity of the vaccine.
According to expert staff member to the Health minister, Ronaldus Mujur, the establishment of the vaccine center encourages vaccine distribution, especially in the southern hemisphere. But this equal distribution must be accompanied by the strengthening of the health systems.
He said that primary health services in a number of low- and middle-income countries were inadequate and as a result, the absorption of the vaccine was not optimal. Vaccines have also expired before they are administered to the people.
“Even if vaccines are available, a country will still face difficulties if its health system is not ready. The Health Ministry will focus on strengthening primary health services in Indonesia in the future," said Ronaldus.
Patent suspension
Another scheme for equal distribution of vaccines being proposed is the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver. This proposal was submitted by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO) forum in 2020. It contains a request for the suspension of a number of provisions, such as intellectual property rights or patents and industrial designs. The aim is to ensure equitable access to vaccines and to accelerate the handling of the pandemic.
Representative of the People's Vaccine Alliance and Oxfam India, Anjela Taneja, said the pandemic and inequality in access to vaccines indicated the greed of some countries. More than 3 million people around the world died after the Omicron variant of Covid-19 broke out. Death could have been prevented by vaccines.
Third World Network representative, Leena Menghaney, recommended that the issue of the TRIPS waiver be raised during the G20. Currently, several G20 member countries have rejected the proposal, namely Germany, France, South Korea, Japan and the UK.
“This issue needs to be brought to international negotiations. The G20 can facilitate this," said Menghaney.
MUHAMMAD SAMSUL HADI
A medical worker gives coronavirus vaccine candidate to a volunteer during a trial at a community health center in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, Aug. 14, 2020. Indonesia’s only vaccine production company has started this week a so-called phase 3 clinical trials to test a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by a Chinese company.
There are, in fact, a few mechanisms to ensure global vaccine distribution, including the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and Covax. However, representative of the Global Health and Vaccine Access Working Group C20, Lutfiyah Hanim, acknowledged these mechanisms have not been fully effective.
"Vaccine support through financing is still far from expectations, so some countries must borrow from the World Bank and IMF to get the vaccine," she said.
According to Lutfiyah, there are a number of things that the G20 could do to support vaccine distribution. As well as supporting the TRIPS waiver, she also encouraged the G20 to show political commitment to vaccine distribution. "I don't think the G20 has the political will because its commitments are just on paper so far," she said.
Vaccine support through financing is still far from expectations, so some countries must borrow from the World Bank and IMF to get the vaccine
Health reform
During the Think 20 (T20) Indonesia event entitled "The Indonesian Healthcare Future Forward", on Tuesday, in Jakarta, the idea of the need for global health reform was raised.
"The pandemic has made us aware of the collapse of health systems, which has an impact on the global economy," said head of the Global Health Supply Chain Program (GHSC) T20 Hasbullah Thabrany.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the Covid-19 pandemic had encouraged every country in the world to strengthen the resilience of their health systems. However, collaboration must continue to be improved so that this resilience could be realized along with access to adequate health services.
Indonesia's G20 presidency also seeks to encourage collective efforts to ensure equitable and comprehensive access to health services. This includes access to vaccines and diagnostic tools in handling Covid-19.
