The G7’s announcement that it will donate 1 billion Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries has largely been met with disappointment . Leavi...
The G7’s announcement that it will donate 1 billion Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries has largely been met with disappointment. Leaving aside that the commitment was actually only to an extra 870 million doses (the 1 billion figure includes commitments made earlier in the year), this will only allow for 500 million people to be vaccinated, half of those in 2021 and the rest next year.
This is despite the G7 calling for efforts to end the pandemic in 2022, and acknowledging that this will require vaccinating most of the world’s population. The World Health Organization has said that this will take 11 billion doses. By any standard, the G7’s announcement represents a massive failure of ambition and leadership. There is a clear gap between rhetoric and reality.
That said, providing doses is not the only contribution G7 countries are making towards the global vaccination campaign. They have committed to building partnerships to increase vaccine production capacity, to maintaining research funding for new vaccines to protect against emerging variants and to reducing the time needed to approve vaccines. They will also continue working to strengthen healthcare systems around the world, so that they can cope better with the effect of Covid-19.
Nevertheless, the overall plan lacks credibility and will make a very small impact on ending the...
