Donald Trump Has Reserved 800 Million COVID-19 Doses For 330 Million Population, Worries CEPI

No matter how desperate poor countries may be for getting enough COVID-19 vaccine doses, but their access to the shots may be restricted due to their richer counterparts.

There is a growing concern that COVID-19 vaccines may not be shared equitably between countries, especially because richer countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. have already reserved billions of first doses for the coronavirus vaccine as a part of individual agreements directly with the pharmaceutical companies working on the prototype.

The head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Richard Hatchett, is worried about the inequality that may persist when the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine starts in the coming months.

Hatchett is responsible to ensure that all countries have equal access to coronavirus vaccines when it is made available. However, the U.S., European Union and several other rich countries have already reserved billions of doses for themselves so that they have access to coronavirus vaccines in huge numbers whenever they are made available.

"What we need to persuade global leaders is that as a vaccine becomes available in these initially limited quantities, it needs to be shared globally, that it shouldn't be the case that just a handful of countries get all of the vaccines that is available in the first half of 2021," Hatchett said in an interview.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been way too far ahead in making sure that enough COVID-19 vaccines are reserved in advance. He has struck deal with at least six pharmaceutical companies for about 800 million doses of coronavirus vaccine for a population of about 330 million.

"The US is potentially in a situation of oversupply if all of the vaccines that they've invested in are successful," Hatchett said.

He further said that he understands the responsibility of the leaders to prioritize their people. However, he called on the U.S. to behave like a global leader and share the coronavirus vaccine doses with other countries as well.

The U.S. has in fact, refused to join Covax, which is an initiative backed by the World Health Organisation and CEPI. It aims to buy and equally distribute about two billion doses of coronavirus vaccines in 2021.

"We will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organisation and China," said White House spokesman Judd Deere on Tuesday, September 01.