The World Health Organization (WHO) is asking G7 members to fund the global emergence from the coronavirus epidemic as G7 foreign ministers meet to prepare for the G7 summit in June. The funding gap for this year is $19 billion.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on May 3 called on the G7 to act decisively to fund the global fight against the epidemic at its June 11-13 summit.
“The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT Accelerator) program, which develops and distributes vaccines and screening tools, should reach its $22 billion fundraising goal this year. The current shortfall is $19 billion. In addition, an additional $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion is needed next year to ensure that the majority of adults worldwide are immunized.
The G-7 countries can mobilize a significant portion of these funds and take the lead in accelerating immunization globally,” Tandse said at a press conference.
The Covax program (Coronavirus Vaccine Implementation Program), launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), GAVI, WHO, the Consortium for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) and others, is moving very slowly: only 49 million doses of vaccine have been delivered to 121 countries and territories, compared to the 2 billion doses targeted for 2021.
The program, joined by 192 countries, mainly procures vaccines from AstraZeneca, but received support from Moderna Moderna and Sweden on Monday.
U.S. and Europe take the lion’s share
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who attended the WHO press conference to add his support to Tandse, said: “We hope that, just as the G7 has made major decisions on debt relief and aid to Africa and on AIDS a few years ago, the G7 will make a major decision on June 11 to support all those who need vaccination.
Gordon Brown called on G-7 leaders to find an “equitable formula” that would cover two-thirds of the cost of fighting the coronavirus pandemic. He proposed that the United States pay 27 percent of the total bill, the European Union 23 percent, Japan 6 percent, the United Kingdom 5 percent and Canada 2 percent. As a nice gesture, Australia and South Korea also contributed 2 percent.
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