EXCLUSIVE: Emergency COVID vaccination scheme in legal jeopardy
Plans to allocate up to 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to humanitarian troublespots by the end of this year could be derailed because neither the drug companies nor the UN agencies and NGOs want to shoulder the risk of potential lawsuits.
COVAX, the worldwide vaccine-sharing initiative, agreed in March to set aside five percent of its vaccine doses for hard-to-reach communities left out of national rollout plans. Those groups include people in rebel-held warzones, migrants on the move, and camps of displaced people. Estimates include 167 million people likely to be missed out of national plans.
In those circumstances, instead of national health services that can’t or won’t do the job, NGOs, the Red Cross, and the UN could deliver and administer the jabs.
Although it’s behind schedule overall – and low on immediate supplies – COVAX recently opened up applications to aid groups wanting vaccine stocks from what it calls its “Humanitarian Buffer”. But the invitation to apply comes with a hitch.
