The wound opened by Indonesia's balk on supplying H5N1 viral isolates to WHO for vaccine surveillance (see here and here) has now been fixed -- with a band-aid:
Indonesia and other five countries are being awarded grants by the World Health Organization to establish in-country manufacturing capacity for influenza vaccine, according to Indonesian branch of WHO.As part of a concerted effort to ensure more equitable access to a potential pandemic influenza vaccine, up to 2.5 million U.S. dollars sponsored by the governments of Japan and the United States will go towards Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia as immediate funding to begin the process of acquiring the needed technology.
[snip]
In addition, he said, should a pandemic emerge, production lines at these facilities can be converted to manufacture vaccine based on the pandemic strain.
The grants are part of the implementation of the Global pandemic influenza action plan which aims to close the influenza vaccine production gap of several billion doses, according to WHO. (Xinhuanet)
$2.5 million? Wow. There are plenty of houses in the big city I live in that sell for more than that. And then there's this little postscript:
It will take a minimum of three to five years for the grant recipient countries to begin producing vaccine locally. Until then, these countries will require support in the shorter term to ensure they can access vaccine to protect their populations.
The interim solution that has been broached is a "virtual stockpile" of vaccines for developing countries. Helen Branswell provides us with a characteristically informative piece:
"We would be wrong not to be developing stockpiles which can address a very crucial need at this point in time. And so we're doing whatever we can to make sure that this occurs," Dr. David Heymann, the WHO's senior representative for pandemic influenza, said from Geneva.
Just how large a stockpile might be and how quickly it might come together remains to be worked out, Heymann said.
"We have no idea what our official number will be. That's what we've been charged to do. But when asking what might be reasonable, one per cent is what everybody is saying in the developing countries, that they would feel they need for essential populations."
(Helen Branswell, Canadian Press)
The stockpile is "virtual" because it will consist of theoretical encumbrances of a certain percent of national stockpiles. There seems to be a lot more than that that is "virtual":
When the idea of a virtual vaccine stockpile was brought up there, a representative from Thailand raised the one per cent figure, saying his country would need enough vaccine to protect 600,000 essential workers - health-care workers, police and the military.
But deciding to set up a stockpile and setting a target of how much vaccine it should contain is only the first step in the process. The WHO would need to find countries or companies willing to donate from their own stockpiles or find funds with which to try to purchase vaccine from the limited global supply.
Heymann insisted parties at the meeting were open to exploring these possibilities.
"We believe that there will be a combination of donations from industry, possibly portions of national stockpiles would be made available from industrialized countries and funding," he said.
Over the next few weeks more work will be done on the idea, with staff hashing out how big a stockpile should be, under what circumstances it would be used and how it would be released to countries.
If developing counries buy this "virtual stockpile" idea, I have a 1995 Volvo, low mileage (for a Volvo) for them.
Nor do I know if providing grants to countries to build their own vaccine capability will work, but I rather doubt it. I still think international regional vaccine institutes will be more efficient, less prone to corrupt national forces, less apt to founder and fail and more equitable in the region. Doling out grants, and paltry ones at that, shows a poverty of imagination.
Just what we need. More poverty.
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Oh brother, agree with you completely revere.
I'd like to see the money the U.S. donated given to our homeless shelter's right here at home.
The money won't be enough either for these countries, they'll want more.
They never fail to amaze me.
If the World Health Organization had a brain: they would eat it!
Got to understand its a group thats run by Ms. Chen, who is very likely run by the Chinese who belongs to the most corrupt organization beyond Halliburton on this planet....The UN.
Randy: Couldn't agree less. I've worked for the UN. It is not corrupt, at least not more so than the average company or the military. Like the military, it is staffed with dedicated international servants who do their best under often difficult and dangerous circumstances as well as some that are an embarrassment to the organization. We love to criticize them in the US at the same time we withhold funds, at our whim, although we want them to do our bidding. Compared to Halliburton, they are saints.
Randy, get your basic facts right. It's Dr. Margaret Chan who is the Director General, I guess you don't give women their professional titles or feel any need to get our names right.
You don't seem to have any basic grasp of how WHO works. Have you read the Constitution? I didn't think so.
You just went down a peg in my estimation. You are spewing know-nothingism.
"Know-nothingism", Melanie?
Perhaps...but I prefer "knows enough to be dangerous".
Randy, like Tom, loves to jump on the UN and WHO. I don't know anyone with either organization personally. But a vast majority of people I do know, WANT to do a good job at whatever they do. Suggesting otherwise, is just plain crap. And to suggest a whole organization (or lumping them all into one) is grossly unfair.
I'm happy to hear something is being done. Really, who knows the absolute RIGHT thing to do??? At least they are working it!
My father worked with the WHO. To my knowledge every WHO representative that I have met has been a dedicated professional. However, it was the nationals within countries that my father worked that caused problems. Local political issues, corruption at all levels, Poor infrastructure, language and cultural differences etc. etc etc, meant that doctors and administrators had to wear many hats in order to implement public health programs. Believe me, in some countries it is an almost impossible task. Some countries would not exist today without the intervention of the UN or WHO and their respective very dedicated employees.
"The stockpile is "virtual"..."
I don't know what they were, but I know what they are...
...a paper tiger.
Tom DVM - granted - they may be paper tigers - what is the alternative?
Victoria---Maybe a match to light them off? Every field person I ever met with the WHO in Central America went out of their way to report my position. They didnt say, "There's a American troop over there". They did say "There is someone over there, he's not with us and he is armed." Why they did that I have no idea other than they didnt like us shooting at people. I have no clue whether they did the same to the other side. They never did on my shift.
Each situation is of course different. Maybe Victoria had to stomp the ground too. Since WHO's inception it has been and is political. Maybe it was the fact that the nice lady who was reporting our position was French?
Melanie-The ladies name has been spelled Chen, Chan, Cheng, and Chang. I have quite a dossier on her and I trust her about as far as I could throw the Gerberdinators ass. Sister SARS spent one hell of a lot of time raising hell about the name of SARS, rather than doing something about it. Somehow she wormed her way into the chair at WHO. Fine, thats politics but we got a hell of a problem beginning to develop and if it breaks she IMO isnt the person to run things. She certainly could turn to Indon now and tell them to come off the samples and advise them that there really isnt going to be any vaccine for them or really anyone else. This money thing is nothing more than a payoff to get them to come off. Time to check Supari's bank accounts in Switzerland.
My big rub with the whole deal is that we are being politically correct and the money is just going to end up in someones pockets that it shouldnt. We have Halliburton, thats a known quantity. These guys send money to Indon and its going to be used on everything but the vaccine efforts.
I think that about covers it.
I am like Revere. While you are up, get me a grant... Hmm... Make it two, and hold the IRS, please.
Randy
Since, once again, you provide no links to your many assertions, it is impossible to judge the quality of your sources. Dr. Chan speaks English as well or better than you and I and I doubt that she has many confusions about how her name is transliterated, which is more than can be said about your sources. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=10371
Auntie Margaret fumed for about three weeks while she pitched a fit about the SARS name being the same as the Special Administrative Region. Lambasted in fact. Also its not her full name-I am sure Gerberdinator is hidden in that name somewhere.
Ultimately I think that this program is about to change functionally. Everyone is now aware that the money sent to Indonesia for "culling" ended up in private pockets. The exact same thing happened in Thailand. Now lets see that money is sent by WHO and administrated by who?
Lie down with fleas and you get bubonic.....