Big pharma won’t give refugees free vaccines due to fears over liability

The principal problem stems from the fact that, in many cases, it is proving impossible to have certain governments agree to indemnify the manufacturers from damages stemming from side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines.

For refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers, as well as those afflicted by natural disasters or other events that places them out of reach of government help, the global programme known as COVAX created a Humanitarian Buffer, "a last-resort reserve of shots to be administered by humanitarian groups," Reuter reports.

According to internal documents from Gavi reviewed by Reuters, the concerns pertain to migrants displaced by the Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Ethiopian crises.

Reuters reports that Gavi, the "vaccine alliance," is a public-private partnership set up in 2,000 to promote vaccination around the world.

However, Gavi, which operates COVAX with the World Health Organization (WHO), says the buffer does not have any mechanism to provide compensation in the case of a serious negative effect arising from vaccine administration.

Because of this, in areas where the pertinent authorities can't or won't guarantee indemnity, the vaccine shots can only be administered if the manufacturer agrees to assume liability, which has not been forthcoming in the way Gavi had hoped.

Pfizer, BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna have all previously committed verbally to helping poorer nations receive the doses they need at lower prices. But on this issue, no agreements have been struck as of the time of this writing.

Pfizer and AstraZeneca have both said, however, that negotiations are underway with Gavi. Pfizer further iterated that it was in direct contact with the governments of Jordan and Lebanon to donate doses of its vaccine for refugees.