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Coronavirus pandemic
OpinionComment
Alexander Matheou
Alexander Matheou

Opinion | Asia needs the world to share its surplus vaccine doses, as quickly as possible

  • In the rich world, mass vaccination has been shown to help save lives. In the race against new waves and new tragedies, we need good news at a global level
  • Yet many Asian countries are down to their last doses and being forced to scale back or suspend their vaccine roll-outs

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An elderly man receives a dose of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine at a local hospital in Ipoh, Malaysia, on June 1. The country has one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the world. Photo: dpa
Alexander Matheou

The world is at a tipping point in the battle to contain the spread of Covid-19. Countries across Asia are struggling to access vaccines while tens of thousands are dying from the disease. Richer countries are sitting on enough doses to vaccinate their populations many times over. Sharing vaccine doses right now is our best shot if we are to prevent a further catastrophe in Asia.

Recently, the G20 – countries with around 80 per cent of the world’s wealth – held a global health summit and called for sharing of vaccines and production technology between nations.

Pharmaceutical companies made commitments to sell cut-price vaccines to lower-income countries. Some companies and countries have offered intellectual property waivers or sharing of technologies on Covid-19 vaccines. The US and Europe offered to share more vaccines and the raw materials for manufacturing. These are all positive moves. For many parts of Asia, the burning issue now is speed.
Countries with vaccine stockpiles need to sell or share their millions of excess doses either directly or via the global Covax Facility to help save lives in countries experiencing record death rates. And they need to do so as quickly as possible.
We only need to look at Britain and the US to see how mass vaccination can help contain the disease. In Britain, Covid-19 vaccines have so far prevented 13,200 deaths and 39,700 hospitalisations, according to Public Health England. In the race against new waves, new variants and new tragedies, we need such good news at a global level, too.

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Eight of the 10 countries in the world that are seeing infections double the fastest are in Asia and the Pacific. Many of these, such as Fiji and Timor-Leste, have low vaccination rates and fragile health systems.

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