Trudeau to join global COVID-19 vaccine fundraiser amid calls for fair access
OTTAWA — The prospect of tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses rolling out as early as this fall is being tempered by warnings to ensure they are shared fairly across the globe, especially in the poorest countries.
The caution comes as Britain is set to host an international pledging conference Thursday that aims to raise almost $10 billion for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, the leading agency for distributing other vaccines to less-developed countries.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will join leaders from 50 countries and major organizations, including the philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates. Canada has already announced its five-year, $600-million pledge to GAVI, which has immunized 760 million children and prevented 13 million deaths in the world’s poorest countries since 2000.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be leading the event, but Trudeau’s appearance comes as Canada vies for a seat on the UN Security Council. It also comes after his address Wednesday to a summit of the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States, where he said Canada is committed to helping developing countries, hardest hit by the pandemic.
That will include ensuring any new vaccine is distributed to poor countries, and avoiding past practice, notably the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, that saw the wealthiest buyers get it first — a message that Johnson, Gates and others are expected to emphasize on Thursday.
“It’s also to send a clear message to the market that there will be a market for this in the developing world, and there will be an organization that can distribute this vaccine,” International Development Minister Karina Gould said in an interview Wednesday.
“What’s different about this pandemic is we’re talking about the whole world getting vaccinated. It’s on a scale that we haven’t imagined before because when we think of previous vaccine campaigns, it’s usually targeted.”
The British envoy to Canada said 30 million doses of a vaccine could become available in her country as early as September because of the swift pace toward clinical trials by researchers at Oxford University in a joint government-funded venture with AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
Susan le Jeune d’Allegeer shecque, the British High Commissioner to Canada, said all governments need to meet their domestic vaccine needs.
“But at the same time, those of us who are members of the G7 and the G20 definitely have the wider global need in our minds at the same time.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted the United States would have 100 million doses of a viable vaccine by year’s end, CNN reported.