New York — While those in the West understandably worry about a stimulus or another shutdown, few have  given thought to how the poorer countries in the world are dealing with the pandemic. Although places like France and the United States are undergoing new waves and have recorded a plurality of global deaths, they’ve still managed to employ robust responses to the viral threat, making use of a well funded and advanced healthcare system. Most lower and middle income countries find themselves in distinctly different positions. 

Countries like Lebanon, recently battered by an economic crisis and explosion that destroyed half of Beirut’s health facilities, are struggling provide even basic healthcare to its citizens. Other nations in war and humanitarian crises find themselves in a worse predicament. 

Because the nature of a pandemic, world leaders realize that countries unable to control the virus in their own country could very easily spill over into another. Their response? The pragmatically named “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator”, or for short, the ACT Accelerator.  

WHAT IS IT?

The striving initiative is a global response meant to address disparities in the world’s pandemic fight. In April of this year, the World Health Organization teamed up with the European Commission and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to announce their strategy. And it is high reaching indeed. 

The fundraising goal is a lofty $38 billion.

“ACT-Accelerator has ambitious targets: to provide 2 billion vaccine doses to the world by the end of 2021, 245 million courses of treatment and 500 million diagnostic tests to LMICs (Lower and Middle Income Countries) in 2021,” says a WHO document. 

HOW THEY’LL DO IT

There are four main pillars to their approach. 

First, the ACT Accelerator and the WHO are emphasizing the importance of testing, as an accurate case count sets the baseline for most public health initiatives. This includes the procurement of 500 million tests and the strengthening of laboratories in 20+ LMIC countries.

Equitable access to diagnostic tests will save 9 million lives and avoid 1.6 billion further infections, the WHO claims.

Its next prong is vaccines. Because the vaccine development and distribution process is expensive and complex, largely dependent on the policies of global corporations and states, the ACT- Accelerator is focusing on access to vaccinations once a viable one is developed. This will translate to the distribution of 2 billion vaccines to developing countries, prioritizing delivery to health care workers and vulnerable populations. 

Even with the vaccine and provision of tests, countries must have the capacity to treat their patients. The ACT Accelerator is helping with that too. What does that mean? 

It means the program intends to accelerate the development of new therapeutics like dexamethasone and other drugs to treat patients severely ill with the virus. Following clinical trials and necessary regulatory processes, the Accelerator is intends to assist drugs companies with intellectual property, regulatory and manufacturing aspects as well. They’ll also take on responsibilities of procurement and delivery of these drugs too. The goal is to distribute 245 million treatment courses in 2021.

Finally, there is something called a Health Systems Connector. “ACT-Accelerator’s main goal under the Health Systems Connector is to make two critical tools not provided by the other pillars – oxygen and personal protective equipment – available as high priority commodities. In addition, the connector aims to support countries to build the required capacity and support health systems to deploy new tools effectively and efficiently when available,” says a report by the initiative. 

MONEY PROBLEMS

In five months since its announcement, the Accelerator has made progress, but it has seemingly hit a roadblock in funding. So far, it has only raised $2.6 billion of its required $38 billion. It needs $6 billion to achieve its testing goals alone. 

Global leaders have shown their continued support despite this funding shortfall. 

The European Commission’s President tweeted this. 

Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance and the World Bank’s Managing Director of Operations echoed this support. 

The G20 countries have expressed their approval as well. Germany is contributing almost $600 million to the initiative. UN Secretary General Antonio Guitteres is a strong advocate for the program as well, especially urging that vaccines are treated as a global public good, one that is accessible and affordable to everyone.