Vaccine Inequity is Bad for Business

In mid-July, markets fell at their fastest rate since October 2020. Analysts immediately linked the dip to the exponential spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant around the world, which is causing millions more deaths and leading to more economic uncertainty.

More than 4 million people have officially died from the virus and we know that the real figure is likely many times higher. We have the tools to end the waves of death that have rippled across the globe for the last 18 months but increasingly I find myself wondering if the world’s leaders have the will to do it?

We’re effectively giving the virus free rein to keep spreading at will and eventually mutating into a form that undermines our current stock of health tools.

Of the more than four billion vaccine doses administered globally, 75% have been administered in just 10 countries. While in most low-income countries, just over 1% of people have received at least one dose. This gap between the haves and have nots is likely to grow even further as high-income countries announce that they will start giving booster shots out. This is why I have called for a moratorium on boosters to ensure that lifesaving vaccine supply can be directed to low-income countries where vulnerable populations need them right now. For the world not to have vaccinated all health and care workers - who have been on the frontlines of this pandemic – and those at most risk before boosters are even discussed is a shame on humanity.

Furthermore, the Delta variant in particular is putting enormous pressure on already fragile health systems and undermining routine immunisation and essential health services. The current strategy is not only a moral outrage, epidemiologically self-defeating, it’s also economically reckless.

I have called for a massive global push to vaccinate at least:

• 10% of the population of every country by September
• 40% by the end of the year
• 70% by mid-next year.

If we can reach these targets, we’ll not only end the pandemic, we’ll also reboot the global economy. 

Scaling up manufacturing and sharing enough vaccine doses with low-income countries could have added $38 billion to their GDP forecast for 2021. And for high-income countries, that have already spent trillions on stimulus, a fractured recovery will continue to decimate industries.

First, countries that have vaccinated the majority of their populations need to share vaccine doses right now with low-income countries. This isn't charity; this is the best way to slow the virus down, protect the most vulnerable and fire up the recovery.

Second, to increase vaccine manufacturing capacity in all regions, we need leaders in government and industry to share licenses, technology and know-how, and waive patents now.

I’m pleased that WHO’s first mRNA vaccine manufacturing hub in South Africa is moving forward with partners from the private and public sector. This is just the beginning of distributing vaccine production more equitably around the world. Moderna and Pfizer have both made highly effective vaccines using mRNA technology, which is potentially easier to scale and quicker to recalibrate against new variants and I ask them to share their know how and technology right now so that together we can accelerate this process.

I want the private sector to be incentivised to make the next generation of tests, treatments and vaccines. However, this wave of death and data on vaccine inequity shows that the status quo of not sharing isn’t working and if companies won’t do more to vaccinate the world, waiving patents is part of answer to how governments can work together to increase production.

Humanity is in a collective race against the virus and its variants. It’s critical to use every tool at our disposal, until we reach our goal of ending the pandemic everywhere. Private sector leaders are in a unique position to leverage their skills, expertise and voices and be part of the solution. This is the moment for business leaders to help lead the way, with enormous payoffs both economically and for society at large.