The president of the United States, Joe Biden, had planned to announce that his country will multiply by two, to one billion doses, its orders for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to share them with the world, as part of the efforts to vaccinate 70 % of the world population in the next year.
The U.S. pledge would be the centerpiece of the global vaccine summit that Biden was holding virtually on Wednesday, in addition to the United Nations General Assembly, in which he hoped to pressure wealthy nations to do more to control. the coronavirus.
World leaders, humanitarian groups and global health organizations are increasingly asserting themselves in denouncing the slow pace of vaccinations around the world and the unequal access to vaccines between residents of rich and poor nations.
The US request, according to two top Biden administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to comment on Biden’s speech, will raise the total US vaccination commitment to more than $ 1.1 billion through 2022. At least 160 million vaccines provided by the United States have been distributed to more than 100 countries, representing more donations than those provided by the rest of the world in total.
The new purchase is only part of what is necessary to reach the goal of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population – and 70% of the citizens of each country – for the United Nations summit in September next year. It’s a goal set by global humanitarian groups that Biden will support.
The president will use the summit to pressure other countries to “commit to greater ambition” in their plans to share vaccines, which includes posing specific challenges, according to the White House. Officials noted that the White House will publish targets for rich countries and nonprofits after the summit.
The American response has been criticized for being too tepid, especially at a time when the government is advocating booster doses for tens of millions of Americans when vulnerable people in poorer countries have yet to get even a first dose.
The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, denounced at the United Nations on Tuesday the “failures of multilateralism” to respond to the pandemic, and pointed out that “the existing gaps” between nations regarding the vaccination process “are unprecedented.”
In the last year, more than 5.9 billion doses of COVID-19 have been administered, representing around 43% of the world’s population. But there are huge disparities in distribution, and many low-income countries have trouble vaccinating even their most vulnerable inhabitants. Several are struggling to beat vaccination rates of between 2% and 3%.
In remarks Tuesday at the United Nations, Biden said he shared with other countries more than 160 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 130 million leftover doses and the first deliveries of the 500 million doses ordered by Washington for the rest of the world.
Other leaders made it clear in advance that this was not enough.
The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, spoke of the “triumph” of science in the rapid development of the vaccine against the political “failure” that produced an unequal distribution of doses.
“In science cooperation prevailed, in politics individualism. In science shared information reigned, in politics the reserve, “said Piñera during a prerecorded speech that was shown at the United Nations headquarters.
Just 15% of pledged donations – from rich countries with access to large amounts of vaccines – have been delivered, according to the World Health Organization. The United Nations health agency has said it wants countries to implement their commitments “immediately” and make doses available to programs that benefit poor countries and Africa in particular.
COVAX, the United Nations-backed program to ship vaccines to all countries, has had production problems, shortages and has been almost excluded from the vaccine market by rich countries.
The WHO has urged companies that make vaccines to prioritize COVAX and make their delivery schedules public. He has also called on rich countries to avoid large booster-dose campaigns so that health workers and vulnerable people in the developing world can access drugs. Those requests have been largely ignored.
COVAX has missed nearly all of its vaccine delivery targets. Its managers have also lowered their dose distribution aspirations for the end of this year, from the original figure of 2 billion doses worldwide to 1.4 billion. Even that mark could be breached.
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