CARICOM insists that access to vaccines must not be discriminatory

The Caribbean is being snubbed by COVID-19 vaccine suppliers and CARICOM (Caribbean Community) chairman Dr Keith Rowley declared Thursday he is not happy about it.

As CARICOM leaders wrapped up their virtual mid-term summit, the Trinidadian Prime Minister expressed disappointment over the region’s inability to source COVID-19 vaccinations and disclosed that CARICOM would be sending “a very strong statement” on the matter.

The topic of vaccines was the “first and primary engagement” of the two-day 32nd Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads, Dr Rowley told journalists.

He said so far the region had only received 170,000 doses, which he said was inadequate. He was referring to India’s gift of 100,000 doses to Barbados and 70,000 doses to Dominica of the India-made Covashield vaccine, also known as the Oxford AstraZeneca jab. Both countries then made donations to fellow CARICOM members with Barbados making gifts to Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname and Belize while Dominica donated to member countries in the seven-nation Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

Each CARICOM nation is due to receive an initial batch of vaccines purchased under the COVAX coalition for low and medium-income countries, organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The COVAX quota, to be shipped between this month and June, are intended to cover one-fifth of the population with the two-dose Covashield vaccine.

He pointed out that a decision had been made that vaccinations would be shared wherever possible.

Dr Rowley said: “We will be issuing a statement on our concern and dissatisfaction with the way we have been literally squeezed out of access to vaccines. We know that there is a world shortage of vaccines but what has been put in place to allow countries like us to have access to the vaccines have not been working along those lines and the end result is that at this time we’ve only had fortunately one gift of 170,000 vaccines within our region and up to now we have not been able to access any other even though we now know and anticipate with great expectation that in the next few days we will hear when we will get our first COVAX.

“But we must understand that the COVAX initial quota is but a small part of our needs and in attempting to find accessible ways to either receive donations or to purchase from manufacturers, the only thing that is happened along those lines is that we’ve got some commitments to some territories from India to add some more to the 170, 000 doses but so far we have not been able to access vaccines in the way we anticipated.

“The large suppliers and the major countries have bought up all of the supplies and the suppliers are telling us they are unable to access orders from us because of their commitment to those who have access to vaccines. So you will see a strong statement from CARICOM on this and you will see a repeat of the call to the WHO in the face of this development, which the WHO is aware of and I dare say the UN, that we need some international response to the complaints of CARICOM and similar nations.”

To make matters worse, some countries in the region were being forced by suppliers to overpay for vaccines, the CARICOM chairman declared.

Dr Rowley told journalists: “One of the conditions under which they are attempting to sell us is that it has to be in a confidential arrangement, meaning that we are not going to expose what we’ve been charged for it.

“What we’ve discovered in that arrangement is that different people can be charged hugely different prices and required by contract to keep those prices confidential and that is the environment in which the vaccine access and purchase is now.”

And while he was optimistic the COVAX facility would be instrumental in servicing the region’s needs, Dr Rowley confirmed that CARICOM is also exploring other avenues to obtain vaccines, such as the African Medical Supplies Platform.

“We have advanced further with the offer from the African Medical Supplies platform,” the Trinidadian leader announced. “There is an arrangement where we have all agreed to put in our request for what we can have from them. We are required to pay and all countries are required to pay so that the shipment can be made and we have committed to do that in such a way so as to allow them to assist us in a way to share their vaccines that they are getting because the African block is one large block and we are aiming to get some from them.”

He said PAHO is also hoping to attract enough vaccines in larger volumes to the COVAX tranche.

Dr Rowley also dismissed a previous report that there had been a singular offer of  500,000 vaccines to CARICOM.
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)