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A British couple has been barred from boarding a flight to Malta by their own government despite being fully vaccinated. They received two doses of Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India. 

Despite being chemically identical to the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and approved by the UK’s health regulatory body, the World Health Organization and 15 European Union nations, Europeans vaccinated with Covishield do not have the same rights as those vaccinated with AstraZeneca. 

There’s another problem: AstraZeneca has still not been approved by America’s Food and Drug Administration, limiting quarantine-free travel into the United States. Australians fully vaccinated with either Pfizer or AstraZeneca still have to undergo 10 days of self-isolation when entering some EU countries. 

This vaccine nationalism, with preferential treatment given to some brands and countries over others, opens up a human rights can of worms. 

It’s all about regulation 

The WHO has approved a wide range of vaccines for emergency use, with more lax approvals than most countries. Vaccines have to have an efficacy rate of 50% or above and undergo safety and quality testing, whereas many countries require higher efficacy rates.

Covishield has yet to be approved by the European Medicines Agency, the EU’s version of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Why? Indian authorities simply failed to get their approval request in early. 

Australia’s TGA also hasn’t approved Covishield. The only COVID-19 vaccines currently recorded on the Australian immunisation register are AstraZeneca and Pfizer. 

The same goes for AstraZeneca with the FDA. While AstraZeneca said it would seek emergency use authorisation back in March, by May it had still not applied — despite the US stockpiling 60 million doses — and it has since distributed the doses to other countries. AstraZeneca is likely now to skip seeking emergency use approval with the FDA and go through the usual approval route. 

Many Chinese-manufactured vaccines have yet to be approved by Western nations, again causing problems for vaccinated Asian travellers.

What does this mean for equity? 

Regulation aside, preferential treatment for some countries over others is a major concern, global health security associate professor Adam Kamradt-Scott tells Crikey.

“It speaks to discrepancies with how our global context is emerging,” he said. “This has been one of the big concerns associated with things like vaccine passports, that it does lead to discrimination [and] potential human rights abuses.”

One such human rights abuse would be requiring people of certain nationalities to undergo invasive medical procedures, which includes the COVID-19 nasal swab test, or be turned away at the border, despite being vaccinated with approved vaccines. This goes against international health regulations, Kamradt-Scott says.

“Internationally it’s a bit of a minefield and it will require a lot of negotiation through WHO and other multilateral forums to actually sort this mess out,” he said. ​​ 

Wealthier nations are scrambling to get booster doses of vaccine favourites, such as Pfizer, while other countries are facing dose shortages for their healthcare workforces.

With Australia so far behind in the vaccine rollout, easy travel is off the cards for a while yet.