‘None of us are safe until all of us are safe’, report on global Covid vaccination says

Tony Blair says there is recognition ‘virus circulating anywhere is potentially virus moving everywhere’, Zoe Tidman reports

(AFP via Getty Images)

A new report has said “none of us are safe until all of us are safe” as it put forward recommendations to get the whole world vaccinated against coronavirus as quickly as possible.

The Global Health Security Consortium - which includes the Tony Blair Institute and Oxford University researchers - have said a “strategic focus and plan” is needed to achieve global vaccination this year.

The report called for wealthy countries to keep incentivising vaccine production after most of their population has received jabs and ensuring vaccines can reach those that need them.

“The only way to protect the whole world from a mutating virus that is still growing exponentially is to achieve vaccination at scale,” it said.

“Until that point there remains a significant risk of new mutant strains emerging that are more transmissible and potentially resistant to vaccines.”

The report, called Vaccinating the World in 2021, adds: “Put simply, none of us are safe until all of us are safe.”

New variants of coronavirus have spread around the world this year, including ones first detected in the UK, Brazil and South Africa.

One variant first detected in India - currently in the throes of a deadly second wave of coronavirus - has recently sparked alarm in the UK as the country pushes ahead with relaxing lockdown measures.

The Global Health Security Consortium, whose other founding partner is The Ellison Institute for Transformative, put forward recommendations on how to overcome obstacles to get the world’s population vaccinated against coronavirus as quickly as possible.

It said vaccinations should be strategically targeted at certain populations to minimise deaths, maintain essential services and reduce viral transmission, given it will not be possible to vaccinate the entire world this year. The group said this could put a focus on “densely populated and urban areas”.

The report also said the supply of Covid-19 vaccines available should be maximised this year and beyond, amid a current global shortfall and the likely need for booster doses in the future.

It said counties such as the US, UK and others with the financial means to do so to continue to incentivise the production of jabs after most of their population has been vaccinated against coronavirus.

“There is now a recognition, because of the challenge of mutations, that virus circulating anywhere is potentially virus moving everywhere,” Tony Blair said.

“So, whilst the primary focus of any government is on the protection and vaccination of their own population, there are powerful reasons of self-interest for those with vaccines or the capacity to produce them to ensure that as much vaccine is produced and distributed as possible to all parts of the world.”

The former UK prime minister added: “Yet though there is the recognition, there is not yet the plan to accelerate vaccination and spread its benefits in the manner needed.”

The report said vaccine supplies must be able to reach people and stressed the importance of reducing vaccine hesitancy to ensure take-up, as well as a coordinated distribution of jabs to strategically identified key populations.

It also said the “repurposing of manufacturing plants is needed to increase global manufacturing capacity” for vaccine production, but said this must not put “supply of other essential vaccines and medical products at risk”.

In a foreword, Mark Green, a former US ambassador, said the report “recommends a strategic approach to ‘vaccine diplomacy’ that can help the world bring the pandemic under control”.

Mr Green, also ex-administrator for US Agency for International Development, said: “It states what should not need to be said: that effective production and strategically optimised distribution of vaccines is in our self-interest.”

He added: “And enlightened self-interest can save the world.”

“A small number of countries are racing ahead on vaccination rollout, with the UK and the US among them, but with many parts of the world lagging far behind. This situation, in the end, benefits no one,” the report concluded.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation said around a dozen countries had not yet received vaccines. Many of these are in Africa, the global health body said.

Analysis has also suggested some of the poorest countries in the world will not have vaccinated one fifth of their populations until early next year.

Looking at current vaccination rates, science analytics company Airfinity estimated nations including Paraguay, the Philippines, Iran, Myanmar, and South Africa will only have immunised 20 per cent of their populations by early 2022.