What is the COVAX Facility?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVAX Facility, which stands for Covid-19 vaccine Global Access Facility, is “a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved.”

Guaranteeing that all countries have quick and equitable access to a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available is essential to ending the global pandemic that has already infected 31.9 million people and killed 978,000 people around the world. Because of the nature of the contagious disease, no one is safe from Covid-19 until everyone is safe.

At present, 170 countries and economies are involved in COVAX efforts, which is one of three pillars to the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, launched by the WHO, European Commission, and France, in April. ACT Accelerator brings “together governments, global health organisations, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil society and philanthropy, with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.” COVAX is namely involved in the last of those three goals. 

Of the 170 countries and economies interested in participating in COVAX, 80 are higher income nations which will finance their own Covid vaccines. They’ll partner with 92 middle and low income countries that will be supported by COVAX, if the facility’s budget is met. All in all, the 172 countries represented account for 70 percent of the world’s population, including half of the globe’s G20 economies. Sadly some countries, including the United States, have failed to join COVAX.

Developing countries, home to some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, may not be able to afford a vaccine once one becomes available. But as long as the disease continues to spread, people regardless of their wealth remain susceptible, as Covid-19 will continue to spread and mutate across the world during the globalized era in which we live.

“COVAX has been created to maximise our chances of successfully developing COVID-19 vaccines and manufacture them in the quantities needed to end this crisis, and in doing so ensure that ability to pay does not become a barrier to accessing them,” reads Gavi’s, The Vaccine Alliance, website.

COVAX’s goal is to deliver two billion doses of safe and effective vaccines that have passed regulatory approval and/or World Health Organization pre-qualification by the end of 2021. Doses will be distributed proportionally to participating countries’ populations. Healthcare workers and vulnerable groups such as the elderly and people with preexisting conditions will be prioritized.

“In the scramble for a vaccine, countries can act alone, creating a few winners, and many losers, or they can come together to participate in COVAX, an initiative which is built on enlightened self-interest but also equity, leaving no country behind,” said Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI.