Abu Dhabi: the new heart of the battle against COVID
In a year in which global society has had to face a pandemic affecting all continents, cooperation and technological development have been key factors that have made it possible to achieve a historic milestone: the development of the vaccine against COVID. International laboratories have managed to complete in just one year a vaccination development process that took at least four years.
The fact that it is a health problem of global magnitude that has paralysed the common way of life and thus economic growth has led to the urgency of developing a vaccine to alleviate these effects. There are currently 9 different types of vaccines that have been administered in different countries in an exercise of globalisation and cooperation, with the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine being the most widely used dose.
In this context, the World Summit on Immunisation and Logistics, organised by the Hope Consortium in Abu Dhabi, was held. Speakers at the virtual event included the WHO, the Gates Foundation and Novavax, among others. Global actions were discussed in order to get the vaccination process and mass vaccine delivery to all countries as quickly and effectively as possible. CEO Dr Richard Hatchett said: "Although the trends are on the right track, we need to act quickly and together to prevent further infections and deaths.
In what is seen as an "unprecedented scientific achievement", the World Health Organisation's COVAX financial system has taken centre stage. Thanks to this system, countries around the world have been able to benefit from the use of the vaccine in an equitable distribution of immunisations. COVAX will deliver a total of 2 billion vaccines to 190 countries and territories in a process in which "To date, more than 1.1 million doses have been administered and more than twenty countries are expected to receive hundreds of thousands of doses in the coming weeks.
The launch of the COVID-19 vaccine has been described in the World Summit as "the greatest logistical challenge since World War II", which is why the world's brightest minds have come together to solve this logistical puzzle and have focused the launch from Abu Dhabi. Another major reason why the Gulf state is leading the movement in vaccine production and transport is because of its geostrategic location.
In this line, this vaccine supply aims to reach 20% of the population of each participating country by 2021. The aim is to protect those most at risk from the virus in order to "give immunity" on the one hand and "prevent serious illness" and save lives on the other.
Abu Dhabi has been spearheaded as a logistics hub for the distribution of the vaccine with the launch of the Hope Consortium. Together with Abu Dhabi entities and international leaders, the Consortium aims to be a complete supply chain for transporting vaccines globally.
Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health, Dr Jamal al-Kaabi said the Hope Consortium represents "a complete supply chain", adding that "we are targeting 18,000 billion vaccines by the end of this past year, representing the largest vaccine capacity in the world". Moreover, Etihad Aviation Group's vice president of sales said that Abu Dhabi's national airline along with the Consortium's own logistics "is key to making Abu Dhabi a global transport and logistics system capable of delivering vaccines around the world". In this line, technological advancement has been one of the key elements in making the capital of the Emirates a leading transport and distribution country.
TLME CEO Sam Khan said, "It has been a challenging time for all of us, and the supply chain often goes unnoticed, yet in these challenging times, many key figures, key companies and our regional governments have stepped up and delivered.
According to the different speakers, cooperation between countries is key to tackling the pandemic as it is a global problem that is further exacerbated by the different variants of COVID, mutated by the extensive transmission process. For Dr Soumya Swaminathan "Vaccines are not just for COVID, they are an instrument of hope".
In this respect, Abu Dhabi presents itself as a global logistics hub that acts as an international vaccine supplier. In this health crisis, the vaccine is not enough if it cannot be delivered. According to the chairman of the Department of Health, Abdullah al-Hamed, "Developing a vaccine is only the first step towards a solution, getting that vaccine to everyone, while maintaining robust temperature integrity, is an equal challenge in itself". This would further bolster the UAE's race for global pandemic vaccination leadership.
This is in addition to the cooperation between Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wan Ying, which resulted in the launch of the first line of COVID-19 vaccine in the UAE.
In response to controversial suspicions of "vaccination tourism", Abu Dhabi has distanced itself from the accusation, claiming that the vaccines are being provided only to "residents and nationals". On the other hand, vaccination in the country is for the moment "voluntary", although it has received a major campaign to appeal to society to get vaccinated.
Currently, Israel ranks as the country with the highest vaccination coverage with 112 doses provided per 100 inhabitants. It is followed by the United Arab Emirates and Chile with 72.6 and 44.3 doses respectively.
On the other hand, one year after the detection of the first case of COVID-19 in Spain, the epidemiological situation remains worrying. Data provided by the Ministry of Health show a total of 3,255,324 confirmed cases in Spain and 75,010 deaths, figures that will increase as the hours go by. The vaccine represents one of the main and only measures to alleviate this social crisis, which is gradually being confronted by a rapid technological advance that allows social immunisation. In spite of the fact that in our country the pace of vaccination is slow, vaccines are seen as a hopeful way out in which the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to appear.