Latin American countries are waiting on vaccines. Here’s what they’ve reserved so far
The coronavirus vaccine has yet to roll into Latin America. When it does, residents of Chile will be most likely to get it. Next in line: Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.
But the rest of the region remains in limbo, thanks to wealthier nations’ maneuverings to obtain as much vaccine as possible, experts say.
“Upper and even some middle-income countries are the ones pre-purchasing or reserving most of the doses, so there’s little left for other countries to buy,” said Ernesto Ortiz, senior manager for programs at Duke University’s Global Health Institute, which has been tracking distributions through official announcements and media reports.
As a result, the precise timetable for vaccine distribution in the region remains an open question. While many Latin American countries plan to tap COVAX, a World Health Organization initiative designed to provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, COVAX agreements will only cover 20% of a country’s population.
So, those countries able to do so are embarking on bilateral negotiations directly with vaccine suppliers — in many cases at the expense of their neighbors.
Separate agreements
Wednesday, Chile became the first Latin American country to formally approve medical use for a vaccine, further cementing its status as the most likely country in the region to see its residents vaccinated.
But even before any authorizations were handed down, countries like Chile began positioning themselves to receive doses. Duke’s Launch and Scale Faster vaccine tracking initiative shows Chile has negotiated three separate agreements — with AstraZeneca, BioNTech/Pfizer, and the Chinese government — to cover its entire population.
Each comes with its own set of issues: The doses ordered from AstraZeneca only cover 38% of Chile’s population. Pfizer’s covers another 26% but require complex logistics to keep the vaccine refrigerated at ultra-sub-zero temperatures. As Puerto Rico learned this week, not having the proper storage for the Pfizer can lead to setbacks.
And while China’s vaccine would cover the entire population, Duke researchers say it is still unclear when the vaccine will be delivered.
Still, Chile remains the country in the region with the greatest percentage of its population prospectively covered by vaccines. While Mexico and Brazil — two of the countries hardest hit by the virus — have also secured their manufacturing agreements, none yet cover 100% of their respective populations. Mexico’s coverage stands at 83%, while Brazil’s stands at 64%.
Other doses secured in the region barely cover half a given country’s residents. Panama has locked in 35% of its population through an agreement with Pfizer, with another 1.1 million doses intended to be supplied by AstraZeneca, which would cover another 13% of the population.
Like Chile, Ecuador has also negotiated separate agreements with three different vaccine manufacturers. Still, only 26% of Ecuador’s population is currently covered.
Through an agreement with Russia, Venezuela’s current dose order covers 18% of its population. In Peru, through Pfizer, it’s 15%.
Among Caribbean nations, only Costa Rica has reported signing a vaccine agreement, securing 3.3 million doses through Pfizer. Because Pfizer’s vaccine requires 2 doses, that means only about a fifth of Costa Rica’s population will be covered.
“So many conversations are going on independently between countries and the manufacturers,” Oritz said. “It’s a very changing environment.”
In a statement, LATAM Cargo, which has a substantial presence at Miami International Airport and which plans to ship vaccines into the region, said there is still uncertainty about the volumes and routes that the COVID vaccines to South America will follow.
“Local Governments are in conversations with laboratories that have production in Europe, North America and Asia,” the statement said, adding it is now prepping four stations in China and two in Europe to begin transporting vaccines into the region.
MIA hub
Regardless of the source and amounts, virtually all vaccines headed to Latin America will transit through Miami International Airport, one of the only airports in the region certified to handle and ship pharmaceutical products by the International Air Transport Association. While other airports are now finding ways to adapt their existing infrastructure to the cold-chain storage requirement needed to handle many of the inoculations, MIA is positioned to begin taking transfers immediately.
“Pharma manufacturers looking how to route their pharma product will choose us versus others,” said Emir Pineda, trade and logistics manager in the marketing division of Miami-Dade Aviation department “Pharma is one of the most highly regulated industries in the world, but handling is not so regulated, and that certification sets us apart.”
Long before COVID hit, MIA had grown into a major pharmaceutical distribution point for the Americas and the U.S. Between 2013 and 2018, the total value of pharma products transported through MIA increased by 104% to $5.57 billion. Miami-Dade earns revenue each time a plane lands at MIA — $1.62 per 1,000 lbs. Cargo tonnage by cargo airlines this calendar year is up 8.7% through October, and cargo flights year to date are up 15%.
“Cargo at MIA has performed extremely well throughout the pandemic, and we expect volumes to increase substantially as the COVID-19 vaccine starts being distributed,” MIA spokesman Greg Chin said in a statement.
In 2017, MIA set up the first certified pharmaceutical transportation corridor with Brussels, Europe’s key international distribution point for drugs. As the pandemic bore down this spring, MIA-based carriers swung into action; by October, DHL, one of the largest pharmaceutical freighters in the world, had established what would become the 13th weekly flight between Miami and Brussels.
DHL declined to say which countries it would be supplying, citing confidentiality agreements. But the company has long-established routes in its Thermonet network of Certified Life Sciences Stations in cities including Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Bogota, Colombia; and Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Mike Parra, CEO of DHL’s Plantation-based Americas division, said DHL has been in what it calls “hyper care” as it prepared to deliver vaccines. This included making test runs and doing time trials to destination countries in the region.
“We wanted to make sure that everything, end-to-end, not only met but exceeded expectations,” Parra said.
Commercial carriers that have experienced passenger slowdowns are also making vaccine runs. Sunday, American Airlines sent a Pfizer vaccine supply from Chicago through MIA on a repurposed Boeing 777 on its way to an unnamed U.S. territory in the Caribbean.
“As our largest international gateway, most of our flying to the Caribbean and Latin America is now through MIA,” said American Airlines spokeswoman Laura Masvidal.
United Airlines is also flying vaccines — and like American, using passenger planes to do so — but it was not immediately clear whether it would also be transiting through MIA.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
