Also COVAX is different from vaccines. COVAX is an international coalition for procuring and distributing vaccines among low income countries at low cost. It’s possible for countries to obtain vaccines without joining COVAX (which we missed the payment window to join)

The problem is that high income countries (UK, US, etc) have the money to buy up billions of doses of vaccines. No vaccine has been approved yet so they’re buying up multiple doses of different vaccines in the hopes that one of those vaccines will be approved soon

This is really expensive and not something low income countries can afford to do. But it also means that once a vaccine is approved, higher income countries will have secured billions of doses leaving low income countries behind in terms of access

One study by Duke University estimated that this reservation process could leave us so far behind that low income countries might only access the vaccine as late as 2024. COVAX is meant to prevent this by providing equitable access

So technically we could go a similar route to India and Brazil and secure vaccines now knowing that the vaccines we secure may not end up being approved (and we would have wasted millions or billions in the process). Or we could go the COVAX route which isn’t perfect either

So far COVAX has managed to secure enough vaccine doses to cover around 260 million people to be shared among member states. In comparison the US has secured 1.8 BILLION JUST for themselves - enough to vaccinate their entire population multiple times over

Here’s the Duke University study explaining everything: https://globalhealth.duke.edu/news/will-low-income-countries-be-left-behind-when-covid-19-vaccines-arrive