Vaccine alliance chief: Omicron could trigger ‘Inequity 2.0’

CHAVANNES-DE-BOGIS, Switzerland (AP) — The head of vaccine alliance Gavi, which is leading a World Health Organization-backed push to get COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries, said that he's seen early signs that rich countries are beginning to withhold donations out of fears about the omicron coronavirus variant — warning any new hoarding could lead to “Inequity 2.0.”

Gavi chief executive Dr Seth Berkley took stock of the nearly two-year fight against the pandemic as the alliance released the latest update to its supply forecast for COVID-19 vaccines that it has repeatedly downscaled, largely because of export bans and vaccine hoarding by some producer countries that critics say it should have foreseen.

“With the omicron variant, what we've seen is panic in many countries that have led to the acceleration of boosters both to the numbers of people getting them, but also the timeline for getting them,” Berkley told The Associated Press in an interview late Tuesday at his home outside Geneva.

He was referring to extra doses given in rich countries to a broad swath of people — not just those at the highest risk of contracting severe COVID-19.

The Geneva-based public-private partnership has been the lead manager of the WHO-backed COVAX programme that initially sought to get coronavirus vaccines to all countries but was pivoted after wealthier countries, and even some poorer ones, started striking their own deals to get jabs.

That locked down much of tight supplies and prompted vast inequality in access to jabs. Of the roughly 10 billion doses that have been delivered worldwide, the vast majority have gone to rich countries. COVAX has delivered just over 700 million.

“We also are beginning to see donors not wanting to donate their doses as fast as they might have because of the uncertainty now of where we are,” Berkley said, declining to specify.

“Of course, our long-term concern is, if it turns out that new variant vaccines are required, that there may be an 'Inequity 2.0' where we see wealthy countries hoard those vaccines once again, like we saw at the beginning of the pandemic.”

While omicron's transmissibility, severity and resistance to vaccines aren't yet fully clear, the new variant could require revisions to existing vaccines or even production of new ones.

Berkley says a COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax, which relies on a common technology in flu vaccines and has shown efficacy against variants, could be set to win emergency-use approval within “days” from the World Health Organization.

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