Supply of corona vaccines exceeds demand, access remains unfair

After two years of racing against the clock to vaccinate the world’s population against Covid-19, the supply of corona vaccines is now exceeding demand in many places. Yet there remains a gaping gap between the richest and poorest countries in terms of vaccination coverage. The distribution of the available vaccines is still unfair. The Global Organization for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) is holding a conference Friday to improve accessibility.

More than 13 billion doses of vaccine against the coronavirus have been produced so far, 11 billion have been administered according to the pharmaceutical industry united in the IFPMA. Experts expect an additional 9 billion doses to be made this year, 4 billion of them by Pfizer-BionTech alone. However, IFPMA director Thomas Cueni reckons that the demand for jabs will drop to 6 billion.

“Since the middle of last year, more vaccine is being produced worldwide than demanded and the difference is increasing. Next year it could increase from 1.3 billion to 3.1 billion doses,” said Cueni. According to him, the countries of the EU and the G7 already have too much. The ‘overdose’ there at the end of last month was enough for 497 million injections. And the shelf life is limited.

Yet billions of people are still unvaccinated against Covid-19, especially in developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that unfair access to vaccines increases the risk of new, potentially more contagious or dangerous virus variants. The WHO wants 70 percent of the population in every country to be vaccinated by this summer.