COVID-19 Vaccine and the developing countries

The last few weeks have been an interesting one for the entire world (or perhaps the entire universe, who knows!). First, it was about the incumbent and eccentric, fast-finger president of the United State smelling defeat at the polls and a few days after, the emergence of the first potential vaccine against the rampaging COVID-19 virus. Although many conspiracy theorists have tried to link the two events together in a rather ridiculous manner, I cannot but constantly think of how the developing countries would benefit from the breakthrough vaccine against the pandemic.

News first broke out about the Pfizer vaccines having as much as a 95% success rate in the prevention of the virus. In their early trial of which over 44,000 subjects participated, only 99 got the virus since July with further analysis of the result suggesting an over 95% success rate. Also, the recently concluded phase 3 study of the vaccine candidate suggested that the vaccine meets all known primary efficacy points. While this might be good news generally, the mode of storage and distribution of the vaccine indicate that developing countries might not benefit from this great scientific discovery.

Most developing countries will likely fall short of the logistical requirements for the distribution and administration of the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine requires that it is transported and stored at a temperature of -70 degree Celsius and if regular refrigeration is to be done, it must be used up within 5 days. The requirement sounds ominous for countries that cannot boast of regular power supplies - take Nigeria for example. The implication is that apart from the billions of dollars that would likely be needed to acquire the vaccine, another huge sum must be set aside for transportation and storage before the vaccine can get to the citizens of each country. How would a country whose citizens survive on less than a dollar per day cope?

Interestingly, some other vaccines with success rates during trials similar to that of Pfizer's vaccines have started emerging, albeit with less demanding storage and transportation requirements. Moderna started their vaccine trial before Pfizer and their own vaccine requires a six months lifespan cold chain storage temperature of -20 degree Celsius as opposed to -70 of Pfizer's. At regular refrigeration, the vaccine can be stored for 30 days as opposed to 5 days of Pfizers. Although the Moderna vaccine sounds more cost-effective than that of Pfizer's, it will still pose many challenges to the economy and infrastructure of many developing countries.

As far as vaccine trial is concerned, only Moderna and Pfizer seem to be at the forefront for now with each of them already at phase 3 trial of their vaccine candidates. Some other manufacturers are also in the mix of producing vaccines against the virus. There are currently over 54 vaccines in the process of development with each at different phases of trials. Hopefully, some of these vaccines will come as effective as that of Moderna and Pfizer and will require a more economically friendly logistical approach to storage and distribution.

One positive thing, however, is that the pandemic has not really bite as hard in developing countries when compared to most developed countries. In Nigeria, for example, the total confirmed cases as of today, 24th of November 2020 stands at 66,439 with 62,241 recovery cases and just over 1,160 deaths. While these figures might be mere official figures and the real figures may be far more, it still points to the fact that the pandemic has not bitten the country as hard as in some developed countries.

As such, many developing countries can still afford to wait and see out the initial rush that will accompany the release of the first vaccine. Hopefully, with time, more economically friendly vaccines would emerge and developing countries can start looking forward to seeing the end of the pandemic. However, the developing countries that have it as hard as developed countries will find it rather tough to get the vaccine across to their citizens, except if intervention comes from developed countries.

Resources

• https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine
• https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/modernas-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-meets-its-primary-efficacy
• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-covid-cold-chain-how-a-vaccine-will-get-to-you/
• https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/