Open letter to Gavi Board Members: Urgent changes to COVAX Facility design required to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccines for all

The COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and the Gavi-led COVAX Facility are some of the initiatives underway to ensure access to potential COVID-19 vaccines. Recent developments of the COVAX Facility, including Gavi’s ‘Preliminary Technical Design’ released earlier this month, however, are a cause for concern.

In the wake of the COVAX Facility’s launch, and building on the lessons learned from Gavi’s pneumococcal vaccine AMC, over 40 civil society organisations and individuals, including MSF Access Campaign, wrote a letter to Gavi Board Members expressing concerns around whether access to COVID-19 vaccines will be guaranteed. The letter highlights seven urgent recommendations that should be incorporated into the next phase of the Facility’s design.