Lin Min linmin67@hotmail.com IN recent weeks humanity has been greeted with what appears to be light at the end of the tunnel after being traumatized by the COVID-19 pandemic for about a year: promising data from the final clinical trials by leading vaccine developers. In British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s words, the “scientific cavalry” is arriving. U.K.-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced Nov. 23 that its vaccine’s efficacy reached 70 percent on average. The announcement on AstraZeneca’s vaccine, jointly developed with Oxford University, came on the heels of two major revelations from U.S. companies, Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer and Moderna reported their vaccines to be around 95 percent effective. Pfizer has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize its vaccine for emergency use. Encouraging news also came from China and Russia. China’s top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan revealed at a forum Nov. 16 that COVID-19 vaccines being developed by China were estimated to have an efficacy rate of around 90 percent, although the final results will not be announced until the trials are completed. Chinese pharmaceutical companies are testing 13 COVID-19 vaccine candidates and have reported no severe adverse side-effects so far. The initial promising data has given hope to the world battling the invisible enemy. However, some challenges may undermine the role vaccines will play in eliminating the virus. First, the technical challenge. Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines require freezer storage, at minus 20 and minus 75 degrees Celsius, respectively. Different from conventional technologies used in developing vaccines, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use pieces of genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) to prompt the body to make synthetic pieces of the coronavirus and stimulate an immune response. At present, countries around the world use “cold chain” refrigeration to deliver vaccines from manufacturers to local clinics, and a freezer storage and transportation system has yet to be established, posing a huge logistic challenge in many countries, especially poverty-stricken countries. However, the bigger challenge is isolationism. No country is safe if the virus still exists in any part of the world. International cooperation in vaccine distribution is crucial in the war against COVID-19, one that humanity must win at whatever cost. It was reported that wealthier countries have placed orders for billions of doses in advance to increase their chances of immunizing their population, and lower-income countries will be entirely reliant on COVAX, an initiative set up to provide vaccines to poorer countries. The initial doses of some of the front-runner vaccine candidates have been earmarked to certain countries. The Pfizer vaccine is committed to its initial doses being supplied to the EU and the U.S., while Moderna’s vaccine will go to the United States for at least probably the first half of 2021. As early as May, China pledged to make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good, ensuring their affordability and accessibility, particularly for developing countries. President Xi Jinping made the pledge May 28, when he spoke at a virtual conference of the 73rd World Health Assembly. China has since repeated the promise on many occasions. With domestic infections largely contained, China will be able to offer vaccines to poorer countries at affordable prices once mass production starts. The country now has five COVID-19 vaccines in the final clinical trials in foreign countries, making it a front-runner in the global race to create a safe, effective vaccine. Sinopharm is seeking approval to market its vaccines by the end of the year. China’s coronavirus vaccine candidates, including inactivated vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines and adenovirus vector vaccines, can be stored in a conventional refrigeration system that requires temperatures between 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. This ensures that these vaccines will be able to be delivered in lower-income countries that are not equipped with a freezer distribution system. More vaccine-producing countries need to join the efforts to distribute vaccines fairly among countries. Without treating coronavirus vaccines as a global public good and making them available and affordable for everyone and everywhere, the global fight against COVID-19 will be futile. The coronavirus has infected more than 62.5 million people and left over 1.4 million dead. The global fight against the coronavirus has been plagued by a lack of coordination and a lack of world leadership as the Trump administration adopted denialism. The responsibility now falls on the shoulders of vaccine-producing countries as humankind is now on the brink of a vaccine breakthrough. For countries claiming or aspiring to be leaders of the world, how they will distribute the vaccines will become a moment of truth in history. Humanity cannot afford letting the light of hope fade. (The author is a deputy editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily.) | 