COVID Communique: Vaccinate the world
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Australia initially ordered 50 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, (now known as Vaxsevria) to cover our population of only 26 million, less the children and some others (medical exemptions, ineligible, unwilling), for a two dose program.
There were vague references to helping our needy neighbours across the region, after we had helped ourselves first of course. Then we turned our backs on a perfectly good vaccine (AstraZeneca, now known as Vaxsevria) because we wouldn’t accept a rare but fatal side effect while we looked death in the face from a rampant Coronavirus.
We were saved eventually by the arrival of Comirnaty (out of the Pfizer stable) amidst a lot of political point scoring while our (many) governments squabbled their way through unfamiliar circumstances, and commentators spent a lot of time talking about what should have been done.
The contract with CSL for AZ will be fulfilled soon and it was announced last week that production would then be ‘finished’. Readers with an interest in corporate and local history would know that CSL has been one of Australia’s great success stories when the rest of us thought we were farmers and miners.
Dr Neville McCarthy was a very popular local GP, but left in 1968 to join a pharmaceutical company (Squibb) as Medical Director, and moved to CSL in 1974 as Managing Director, and the rest is history. I would have happily bought some shares in it except that it was not listed on the stock exchange then, and I was a penniless medical student.
When both of those factors changed in my favour I still didn’t have the sense to purchase any shares when it was listed in
1994. CSL (the great success) is currently priced at $306.50 a share, which is worth about 8 BHP shares (the miner), currently trading around $36.41, but it would take quite a few to buy a rural property (the farm).
CSL has developed into an international bio-pharmaceutical behemoth, which it wasn’t when Neville took over, when it was owned by the government.
So far CSL has made (and sold) only 20 million of the 50 million vaccine doses ordered because we don’t need it now, but they will honour the contract, and presumably collect payment from the Commonwealth Government, which leaves us with 30 million doses to do something else with.
Remember that this is an inexpensive vaccine by contemporary standards at about $3-$4 a pop, priced for ‘no profit’ by the philanthropically minded developers (drug companies are often unfairly described in disparaging terms), compared to $20 for the Pfizer alternative, but who cares if you aren’t paying?
The other mRNA vaccine, Moderna costs us about $32-37. The advantage of AZ is that the cold chain requirements are no different to other vaccines used all the time whereas Pfizer and Moderna have ultra-low cold storage specifications that don’t fit well with remote and tropical places.
Don’t worry about the rare myocarditis side effects associated with Pfizer, but some discerning consumers are now shopping around and demanding the as yet untarnished Moderna!
But at those prices we won’t be sending any to our friends. One of our most notable needy neighbours is PNG (always has been), with 2% of the population fully vaccinated, and generally unprepared for what is coming their way.
A large proportion of the population live in remote villages - good luck for them except that the risk lies in the occasional visitors - and then there are the large cities of Port Moresby, Lae and Mt Hagan where there are dense populations often living in squatter settlements, conducive to Coronavirus transmission.
Even with healthy diet and lifestyle there is no natural immunity to Coronavirus.
Our Prime Minister, recently at the G20 conference in Rome is now quite keen to use up all the AZ in our vaccine fridges, and the yet to be made vaccines under contract, and a few more as well to help out in the region.
Since Australia’s foreign aid has been wound back over the years amidst claims of corruption, wastefulness, inefficiency and poorly targeted projects, it is now a time to return to generosity, like the government helping Telstra with $1.9 billion to buy up the Pacific telecommunications giant Digicel, rather than let China increase its influence.
And so, with a finely tuned balance of altruism and self-interest we will also help with their vaccination programs. The WHO would like all of the wealthier nations - well represented at the G20 - to help the less fortunate, and see to it that 70% of the world is vaccinated.
No argument there but I don’t see why those who invent and manufacture the vaccines shouldn’t get first bite of the cherry, and then help out. We are at that stage now and if you view the pandemic as a global challenge, particularly as economies open up again, you can see that vaccinating the world will help everyone, including us.
So, the CSL plant will shut down, and then re-open and contracts and political promises and expectations will all be fulfilled. Sort of. There is devil in the detail but if we can vaccinate the region and provide telecommunication infrastructure across the Pacific, it will go some way to filling a void that might otherwise be occupied by others, such as those who have already purchased chunks of our own logistics assets and farms.
Yarrawonga Vaccination Centre at the Yarrawonga Medical Clinic has given 8,530 doses to date, including 4090 second doses - fully vaccinated, and ready for the booster dose in six months.
See you then.