Other Papers Say: Clear path to vaccinating world

The following editorial was written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board:

Manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines say they’re now producing 1.5 billion doses a month and will have made 12 billion doses by the end of the year. In theory, that would be enough to meet the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the global population. The challenge is to ensure these vaccines go where they’re needed. Most of the doses coming off production lines appear headed for wealthy countries that will soon have more than enough.

By the end of the year, the U.S., U.K., European Union, Canada and Japan could find themselves with more than 600 million excess doses, beyond what they’ve already promised to donate, even after offering booster shots. At that point, 20 percent of them may be too old to be used elsewhere. The G-7 countries have so far delivered less than 15 percent of the nearly 1.7 billion doses they’ve promised to give to low- and middle-income countries.

Much of the developing world remains almost defenseless against COVID-19. Some 56 nations, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, have vaccinated less than 10 percent of their populations.

Three things need to happen without further delay.

First, rich-country governments should demand much more information about producers’ plans. They need to see where, when and how many shots are expected to be shipped. That will let them measure their own needs alongside planned supply and enable them to share excess doses more efficiently, instead of at short notice, often too late for the shots to be used. At his vaccine summit in September, President Joe Biden proposed a global dashboard to track vaccine production and delivery schedules. The U.S. and others should press hard for manufacturers to comply.

Next, countries that already have enough vaccines should speed up their donations and make way for deliveries to go elsewhere when they’re not needed. Up to now, the global Covax partnership has fallen short, chiefly because it hasn’t been given the doses it was promised. This should be fixed.

Third, rich countries should swiftly provide the $8 billion the WHO says is needed to help poor nations store, deliver and distribute vaccines. The infrastructure, cold chains and teams of vaccinators required to administer shots need to be scaled up now so they can handle the hoped-for surge in supplies.

The failure to deliver vaccines around the world is bad enough, but there’s an even bigger shortfall in financing for COVID-19 testing and therapeutics. Merck & Co.’s antiviral pill molnupiravir — which appears to cut the risk of hospitalization and death — gives rich countries another way to help.

The longer the pandemic goes on, the greater its costs and risks — including for countries that have vaccinated most of their citizens. This is about self-interest as much as benevolence.