As at 2nd March 3, 2022 the number of COVID-19 global confirmed deaths are 437,333,859 (World Health Organization). Elsewhere, the number of deaths in the whole world are 5,960,972 (World Health Organization). In the United States of America, the total number of COVID-19 infections case so far are over 79 million, while deaths are estimated to be close to 952,000 (World Health Organization). In European countries such as the United Kingdom, the total COVID-19 cases so far are 19M, India 42.9M, Brazil 28.8M, and France 22.2M (World Health Organization). In term of deaths, India has 514,000 cases, Brazil has 650,000, France 136,000, and United Kingdom has 162,000 (World Health Organization). In Africa, and other developing countries, case of COVID-19 outbreak and deaths have increased drastically since the virus was reported in China. For instance, in Kenya, there are 323,000 reported cases so far and estimated 5,639 deaths (World Health Organization).
It reported that half of the total mortalities in the world are from developing countries. In relation to vaccination statistics, one should note that at least 10.7 billion of coronavirus vaccines have been administered so far across 233 locations in the world. This has been so far been achieved in 184 countries. In the United States, a total number of 553 million doses have been administered while 140 million doses in the United Kingdom (World Health Organization). In Africa as a continent, only 587 million people have been vaccinated so far, an indication that African countries are far and wide experiencing numerous challenges in as far as vaccinating its people is concerned.
The United States pharmaceutical companies-Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson should be required to expressly share their COVID-19 vaccine recipes as well as the technology with other countries especially developing ones. This has been a shared feeling since last year specifically as it concerns Moderna, which was the upstart biotech firm that was by far involved in complete manufacturing and development of vaccines using billions of dollars from taxpayers’ money (Nolen and Stolberg). In essence, it does not make sense when the developed countries are more than three quarter fully vaccinated in term of the whole populations while the developing countries particularly in Africa and other part of the world have vaccinated less than 10% of its people. This explains why the United States health officials feel that the three companies have a greater responsibility in addressing the present global vaccine shortage (Nolen and Stolberg). In his word, President Biden highlighted that he believes America will never be same unless other parts of the globe are safe and their people are vaccinated from the virus.
In reality, it makes no sense when some countries have made serious positive steps in term of vaccination while others are still lagging behind. COVID-19 is easily spread and if the developed countries do not take a serious initiative towards addressing the current issues, it will reciprocate and affect such countries. The silver lining in all of these issues is that President Joe Biden’s administration has urged these pharmaceutical companies to enter to joint ventures where it would be possible to license their unique yet important technologies to contract manufacturer for purpose of offering vaccines to low- and middle-income nations (Nolen and Stolberg). While that is not enough, if these companies do no oblige with the president’s request, he should invoke the Defense Production Act. This act was enacted in 1950 and it requires the president to use his or her authority to require companies such as Moderna to urgently prioritize specific government contracts for the purpose of medical supplies to deal with national emergencies such as COVID-19.
Specifically, President Biden should direct the pharmaceutical companies to strictly expand their production of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries to deal with the present low vaccine uptake crises in the mentioned regions. The Defense Production Act would require the said companies to fund projects in order to expand domestic production of supplies and agree partnership with existing private companies (Siripurapu). Last but not least, in relation to World Powers Act, the three pharmaceutical companies would be granted some form of monetary compensation considering their efforts to ease an ongoing global pandemic.
In conclusion, it is clear that COVI9-19 pandemic has severely affected every part of the world. However, there seems to be a massive disparity in terms of vaccine administration between developed and developing nations. Countries such as the United States should be at the forefront in directing and encouraging their leading pharmaceutical companies to share their technology with private companies in developing countries to deal with the existing disparity. In the end, it would mean that a collective responsibility would be the key towards dealing and complete management of the pandemic.
Works Cited
Stephanie Nolen and Sheryl Gay Stolberg. “Pressure Grows on U.S. Companies to Share Covid Vaccine Technology.”Newyorktimes.com. Web.
Siripurapu, Anshu. “What Is the Defense Production Act?” Council on Foreign Relations (2020).
World Health Organization (WHO). “WHO Coronavirus.” Web.