Countries stockpiling vaccines should adopt an ‘international outlook’ on COVID

The global vaccination rollout will not succeed until there is a movement towards "sharing the vaccines” and against countries stockpiling doses according to WHO Expert Group on Immunisation Chair Dr Alejandro Cravioto. “I think everybody is having a problem, the producers are having huge pressure by their own populations to have as much vaccine stay in their country as possible … in a sense we are all subject to whatever is being trickled out of the companies,” he told Sky News. “I think that on one side it is justified because everyone wants to be vaccinated but on the other hand without some kind of equity feeling and a feeling of sharing of the vaccines, we will not get through.” Dr Cravioto said the stockpiling of vaccines by their countries of origin was about the safety of their populations but the issue is when companies promise vaccines they do not supply. “I do think that the high income countries that are the producers or the ones that are hoarding the vaccine, because some of them have made commitments far far in advance of the size of their populations, should really start looking a bit on the other side of this issue.”