COVAX facility and its effectiveness in distributing covid-19 vaccines

Abstract

COVAX is a global body comprising of WHO, GAVI, CEPI and UNICEF that was tasked with providing 2 billion vaccines worldwide by 2021. Most of these vaccines were to be provided to low- and middle-income countries. However, they could only deliver 240 million. Reasons for this failure were a lack of proper funding, high bargaining power of vaccine manufacturers, vaccine nationalism adopted by rich countries and trade restrictions. Going forward, COVAX needs to secure more trustworthy and alternate sources of finance as well as increased commitment from vaccine manufacturers. Further, trade and IP laws should be relaxed for the purpose of vaccine manufacturing and delivery.