Ensuring fair and equal access to vaccination programmes against COVID-19 is a moral duty and a health priority: this is why we have chosen to be on the frontline in the global effort to stop the pandemic.
As a humanitarian organisation on the frontline of emergencies, with strong expertise in programmes of protection, primary health, access to water and hygiene (WASH), we are ready to support the vaccination campaign against COVID-19, reaching populations in grave need in the most hard-to-reach areas; raising awareness and informing the local communities; administering vaccines and participating in the monitoring and logistical organization of their distribution including the cold chain management.
The vaccine is our most powerful tool to control the COVID-19 pandemic and allow the world to begin a new chapter. We must be aware that everyone’s health has never been so interconnected and no one will be really safe until everyone has been vaccinated. Our participation in the vaccination campaign will contribute to overcoming conditions of inequality and exclusion that offend humanitarian values.
At the same time, supporting the vaccination campaign at a global level is not just a moral commitment, it is the best way to respond to this health emergency. Once COVID-19 vaccines are available to priority populations in all countries around the world, starting with health professionals and the most vulnerable, will we begin to bring the pandemic under control, and only when vaccines are widespread in every country, will we be able to say that we are really defeating the virus, and most importantly, preventing its further reproduction and mutation.
Inequalities in access to the vaccine are evident and unacceptable. At the beginning of 2021, when national and international vaccination plans were established, the majority of people already vaccinated are concentrated in a limited number of countries. This inequitable distribution is even more apparent if we look at the vaccination coverage forecast. While the European Union and the United States plan to vaccinate their total target population by 2021, almost all African countries (with the exception of South Africa) will not achieve this target before the end of 2022, possibly extending into 2023.
The disparity of the agreements reached with pharmaceutical companies and the discretion already highlighted in many cases in the distribution of the vaccines will risk producing further delays and inequities. For this reason, INTERSOS supports requests for a waiver of the intellectual property rights on vaccines and for maximum transparency of all information relating to their production.
Our Commitment
This is the time to take action. In the framework of the COVAX initiative (one of the three pillars of ACT – Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator – launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization), INTERSOS activated a task force at the end of 2020 to define its vaccination strategy and coordinate interventions in all the countries in which it operates. Based on the experience of our mobile medical teams, of our primary health projects in emergency areas and of our operatives specializing in humanitarian protection, we are committed to pursuing the following objectives:
- Managing the cold chain necessary for the correct storage of vaccines
- Administering the vaccines both in urban settings and in remote or hard-to-reach areas
- Training local health operators and support health facilities
- Raising awareness and mobilising local communities, identifying the most marginalised groups and people at risk of exclusion, and facilitating their access to the vaccination campaign
- Supporting communication campaigns to tackle disinformation linked to the vaccination efforts.
These objectives can be achieved through ad hoc projects or through the adaptation of existing programmes.
The countries included in the COVAX platform in which INTERSOS operates are: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, South Sudan and Yemen. Specifically, INTERSOS will be able to immediately make these vaccines, acquired by its health teams, available in the Borno State in Nigeria, in some provinces of Afghanistan, such as Kandahar, and in the northern governorates of Iraq. These areas are all affected by recent or ongoing conflicts, where the assistance provided by an international humanitarian organisation can represent a fundamental added value in ensuring the effective distribution of vaccines to the population.
Why we choose to be at the forefront of vaccination
In humanitarian crisis areas, such as those in which INTERSOS operates, the vaccination campaign poses additional challenges starting with access to populations living in areas affected by wars, violence or natural disasters or living in conditions of extreme social exclusion and in remote rural areas, or who are refugees or homeless. Organising the vaccination campaign requires an extraordinary logistical effort to ensure distributions while respecting health standards. On an individual level, we will need to identify specific solutions for people experiencing particular conditions of vulnerability, such as lack of legal status and documentation. Finally, we will need to ensure that correct information on vaccination is available and being disseminated, and to educate the population in order to counter disinformation. Our efforts will actively involve local communities and their leaders to increase the confidence of the population, support local authorities and ensure maximum involvement of all stakeholders.
Only by addressing these challenges in their entirety and complexity will it be possible to ensure vaccination for hundreds of millions of people living in crisis situations.
What is COVAX and why we need to do even more?
COVAX, as referred to above, is one of the three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator, launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization, with the aim of uniting governments, global health organisations, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil society and philanthropy with the intent to provide innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines. So far, more than 180 countries have signed up for the COVAX initiative.
However, it is expected that COVAX will only be able to guarantee, on the initial allocation, 20% of the necessary vaccines, aimed primarily at vaccinating healthcare professionals and the population with pre-existing health conditions. International organisations and state authorities are therefore called upon to take concrete action to make available the resources necessary to ensure the supply and distribution of the remaining vaccine quota on the basis of the National Development Vaccination Plans drawn up with the support of the WHO, promote fair distribution of vaccines, counteract inequities and delays, and to support efforts to accelerate medical and logistical preparedness anywhere in the world.