The developed world is vaccinating against Covid-19 at a significant rate, but not all countries can achieve the same level of vaccination. Poor countries need help and for this reason, the Group of Seven (G7) made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom has committed to the delivery of 1 billion vaccines to countries on the way. development over the next 12 months with a view to a total, as anticipated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, of 2.3 billion vaccines by the end of 2022.
The intention of the main world powers is to reach 80% of the population by the year 2022.
“I am pleased to announce the (G7) commitment of 1 billion doses of vaccines, either directly or through funding from (the international program) COVAX,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the summit in Cornwall ( Southwest England), in the closing ceremony of the summit.
In the final communiqué of the summit, signed by the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada and the United States, it is specified that the commitment of direct donations reaches 870 million doses, half of which are they want to allocate before the end of this year through the COVAX program.
In his speech, Johnson said that one hundred million of those doses will come out of the United Kingdom.
The joint statement explains that the commitments made by the seven countries since the beginning of the pandemic, either through financial contributions or direct donations, bring the total cooperation to 2,000 million doses.
Experts estimate that a minimum of 11 billion doses will be needed to defeat the pandemic globally.
Asked about the suspension of vaccine patents – an average advocated by more than 100 countries around the world, including the United States – Johnson said that ” the really important thing is to increase manufacturing capacity around the world, especially in Africa. ” .
“The way forward is to sell vaccines at cost, we defend the Oxford / AstraZeneca model,” said Johnson, who insisted on the need to accelerate the transfer of knowledge and manufacturing technology to developing countries.
An “unforgivable moral failure”
After criticism such as that of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the low figure announced, an “unforgivable moral failure”, the current British president, Boris Johnson, has highlighted at a press conference after the publication of the statement that it is a “quantity enormous”. The World Health Organization (WHO) had requested 11 billion doses.
Subsequently, US President Joe Biden has pointed to the possibility of delivering another 1 billion vaccines soon, although he has acknowledged that he is not yet in a position to make a formal announcement in that regard.
Thus, Biden highlighted the “extraordinarily collaborative” tone of the meeting and expressed his satisfaction with the response to China.
For his part, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel , stressed that “the EU partners (in the G7) have joined to accelerate the production and delivery of vaccines for the whole world.” “The EU has taken the reins,” he stressed.
In addition, he highlighted the “commitment to Africa” that “must be at the heart of our international relations”, according to “some European leaders”, a “win-win” strategy for Africa and for Europe.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the commitment of the Group of Seven (G7), but has underscored the urgency of the pandemic situation, as more people have died in 2021 than in all of 2020 due to outbreaks in many countries where vaccines remain out of reach, especially in South America, Asia and Africa.
In a harsher tone, Oxfam has directly accused the G7 of “cooking the numbers” on vaccines because they will only donate 870 million doses. The other 130 million are the ” equivalent in dose ” of other economic payments.
” They have absolutely failed to meet the needs of the world amid the greatest health emergency of the last century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet,” said Oxfam. “The summit of the G7 lives in infamy”, has riveted.
In addition, on the commitment that the whole world is vaccinated by the end of 2022, he reproached them for “worrying more about protecting the monopolies and patents of the pharmaceutical giants.”
A “productive and collaborative” summit
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, celebrated at the closing of the G7 leaders’ summit that the face-to-face meeting has been “extraordinarily collaborative and productive” in developing measures to combat the pandemic and boost the global economy.
“The United States is back at the table,” Biden said at a press conference in which he regretted that his predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump, downplayed issues such as climate change in previous international meetings, in which neither the threat posed by China was underlined.
The US president stressed the relevance of the commitment made by the G7 to donate 1 billion vaccines against the coronavirus to developing countries and the agreement to promote a minimum rate of global partnerships.
