3.8 Lessons for the future

SOUTH ASIA VACCINATES

to develop vaccines rapidly, may secure the lion’s share of the vaccines now available. Some middle-income countries are also developing vaccines, and India is a major producer. Nevertheless, poor countries without their own vaccine production and limited access to external sources are likely to confront significant delays in having the vaccines available to achieve herd immunity, even if the financing has been secured.

It is understandable that countries wish to safeguard their own populations first. However, as long as the virus is circulating in unprotected populations, it remains a threat to global health. Rich countries, as well as other vaccine producers, thus have a real interest in ensuring sufficient vaccine access for all countries. International efforts are underway to invest in vaccines and assure access to lower income countries, including countries in South Asia. These include Gavi’s COVAX facility, a donor-funded initiative to pool procurement for vaccines across countries and subsidize access for the poorest, as well as the World Bank’s $12 billion Additional Financing mechanism for COVID-19 vaccine purchase and distribution.

3.8 Lessons for the future

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Nevertheless, it is useful to consider lessons from COVID-19 for improving future pandemic preparedness.

Globally, governments have been able to accelerate the development and production of vaccines with advanced market commitments, subsidies, or research in government facilities. High priority should be given to investments in developing vaccines, such as finding a vaccine with general application to all coronaviruses or perfecting vaccines against known diseases with pandemic potential. It also is vital to build infrastructure that can be scaled up rapidly to produce vaccines en masse in a short period of time, and perhaps to stockpile the materials required. A portion of such expenditures, including financing research into vaccines that never pan out, will be lost. Still, the potential for large gains and the limited funds required for research, compared to the costs of another pandemic, argue for taking some risks in this area. Another lesson is that a higher priority should be given to international coordination, with the COVAX facility playing a more central role in obtaining and distributing vaccines across nations. Importantly, such an effort would help countries with limited resources to obtain vaccines early on.

For South Asia, it is critical to strengthen the delivery systems needed to reach the entirety of a country’s population at minimal cost to the recipients. Cold chains