When it comes, the vaccine to fight the new coronavirus will not reach everyone. Portugal has already expressed interest in joining the program created to facilitate worldwide access to the drug.
The great hope for the definitive end of the Covid-19 pandemic is the discovery of a vaccine. But even when that day comes, the process for distributing the drug on a global scale promises to be long and tumultuous. Each country has its own risk factors and health systems, so establishing a collective protocol is not easy.
Rafael Vilasanjuan, director of Analysis and Development at the Institute of Global Health in Barcelona (ISGlobal) and member of the board of directors of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), even admits that it may be years before the vaccine reaches everyone.
Speaking to El País, the expert explains that there is only the capacity to produce two billion doses of a vaccine and, at best, it will be possible to provide 250 million doses of vaccines per month. However, there are 7.5 people in the world who are at “equal risk”.
By joining the Gavi COVAX Facility program, created to facilitate worldwide access to the drug, each country pays in advance and as soon as a vaccine exists, it receives enough doses to vaccinate 20% of its population.
And then, who should be the first to be vaccinated? Experts are divided.
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