UK took 500,000 vaccines from COVAX. Experts worry it could take more

Fears are mounting among global health campaigners that the U.K. government will use COVAX to procure vaccines to supply domestic booster schemes, after having already used the international cooperative mechanism to source half a million doses administered within the country.

The U.K. Department of Health and Social Care has not denied that it plans to use COVAX again to procure more COVID-19 vaccines, furthering concerns around global vaccine inequity. High-income nations Canada and New Zealand have also sourced vaccines from COVAX for domestic use.

The U.K. government recently announced plans to administer shots to 12- to-15-year-olds and boosters to vulnerable citizens. DHSC did not tell Devex how many doses would be needed for the groups, but around 30 million vulnerable people are reportedly entitled to a third dose. The country is believed to have access to around 27 million vaccine doses through COVAX.

The U.K. has contributed £548 million to COVAX and promised to donate 80 million doses through the mechanism. But the government has been criticized for the low number of vaccines it has given already. Our World in Data has found that the U.K. delivered just 5.1 million doses so far — under 7% of its promised contribution.

The COVAX mechanism was established last year, ostensibly to help countries purchase vaccines as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. But it has been underfunded, and its recent supply forecast reported a “reduction in the number of doses that COVAX expected to receive in 2021.”

Vaccine coverage in low-income countries remains very low, fueling a health inequity crisis of great concern to global health experts. This year, COVAX will be delivering 150 million fewer vaccines than it planned to Africa, where just 3.6% of people have been fully vaccinated, according to the World Health Organization.

When asked if there were any plans to obtain any further COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX mechanism, a DHSC spokesperson took four days to reply and said that the U.K. vaccination program had been a “phenomenal success which has built a wall of defence against the virus.”

“We are confident in our vaccine supply and have one of the highest COVID-19 vaccine uptake rates in the world,” the statement added.

A government response to similar questions in the House of Lords also did not rule out procuring further vaccines from COVAX to be used in the U.K., prompting concern from peers.

“Will these booster jabs be from our own stocks, or drawn down from #COVAX? Given supply issues & massive vaccine inequality around the [world] ... it’s crucial that the limited doses that #COVAX do have go to those countries that desperately need them, not [the United Kingdom],” tweeted Liz Sugg, the former Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office minister who resigned over the country’s aid budget cuts.

“Given the current situation in terms of huge undersupply to developing countries, huge underfunding of COVAX, inadequate donations from high-income countries to low-income countries, but also given our current successful domestic program — so much so we’re giving to children and boosting adults … it doesn’t seem the appropriate time to be taking from COVAX,” said Pete Baker, a global health policy fellow at the Center for Global Development.

“It seems the appropriate time to be donating more to COVAX,” he told Devex, adding that the U.K. suffered from a demand — rather than a supply — problem with COVID-19 vaccines.

Layla Moran, a member of Parliament and the international development spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats party, said it was a “moral outrage” that the U.K. had obtained vaccines through COVAX. “Rich countries should not be taking doses away from poorer ones. It's as straightforward as that,” said Moran. “I am utterly appalled. [Prime Minister] Boris Johnson's 'sheriff of Nottingham' approach to foreign policy only serves to undermine Britain's global reputation.”

“The U.K. has one of the highest levels of vaccination globally and is a rich country that does not need to make use of COVAX,” said Mike Podmore, director of health campaign group STOPAIDS, which is part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance campaigning for greater vaccine equity.

He continued: “It is unconscionable that the U.K. would think it acceptable to take vaccines from COVAX, reducing the already limited vaccines available to low- and middle-income countries in COVAX and furthering global vaccine inequality. We call on the U.K. to never ... draw vaccines from COVAX again.”