COVID-19 vaccine fundraiser today

TRUDEAU TO JOIN GLOBAL EVENT AMID CALLS FOR FAIR ACCESS

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 today that aims to raise almost $10 billion for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, the leading agency for distributing other vaccines to lessdeveloped 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 fiveyear, $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 today.

“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 towards clinical trials by researchers at Oxford University.

High Commissioner Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershec que said in an interview that Britain wants to ensure that “it’s not the person with the biggest cheque in their hand that gets the first bite of this particular cherry.”