This week I will be discussing the excited race that is to develop a vaccine to treat Covid-19. Although other treatments can be used to eliminate the virus, nothing is as potent as a vaccine. A vaccine trains the body to create an army of antibodies and other immune cells to recognize and completely destroy the coronavirus. However, despite how efficient researchers works, an optimistic timeline would still take about 12-18 months to develop a vaccine. A serious concern is that once the vaccine is developed, there may not be an equal distribution of it. The first world countries may have a higher number of vaccines simply because they can afford it whereas the third world countries may just get a small number of the supplies. In part, this contributes to the idea that the rich countries get richer whereas the poorer countries get poorer.
For example, this idea of hoarding the supplies was evident during the 2009 H1NI influenza pandemic. Australia had created a vaccine but it did not export it universally right away because they wanted to make sure that their citizens had access to it first. Although this logically and practically makes sense, there is something morally wrong about not thinking about the larger scope. To resolve that issue, a Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework was put into place which prevented this hoarding. However, there are concerns that since the PIP was designed for influenza, it may not necessarily apply to the coronavirus outbreak.
Let’s hope that by the time a vaccine comes by, there will be a law out there that mandates sharing of supplies. This can aid in further creating a divide between the richer countries and the poorer countries.
- By: Aashka Suvarnakar