G20 must act now to vaccinate the world
When the G20 finance ministers meet in Venice this weekend, they should adopt a plan to immunize the world against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Every vaccine-producing country will be in the room: The US, the UK, the EU, China, Russia and India. Together, they produce enough doses to complete the immunization process for the entire globe by early 2022. Yet the world still lacks a plan to get it done.
The existing global effort to bring vaccine coverage to poor countries, known as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) facility, has fallen disastrously short of what is needed. Vaccine-producing countries have used their output to vaccinate their own populations — with many millions of doses to spare. And vaccine-producing companies have made secret deals with governments to sell doses bilaterally rather than through Covax at a lower cost.
The world is plagued by the selfishness of the vaccine-producing countries, the greed of the companies and the collapse of basic cooperative governance between the world’s major regions.
Scientists have been sounding the alarm that delays in global vaccine coverage could prove devastating for the entire world, as new variants arise that evade the existing vaccines.
The good news is that comprehensive global vaccine coverage is feasible. Global production levels are now high enough to reach comprehensive coverage for the adult population in every country within a few months. What we need now are plans to share vaccine doses among countries worldwide, rich and poor alike, supported by logistics and financing. None of this is out of reach if the G20’s members finally start planning seriously.
The situation is especially urgent in Africa, where only about 16 million people, or just 2 percent of the adult population, were fully immunized as of June 30. This is incredibly low, especially compared with full vaccination rates of 17 percent of the worldwide adult population outside of Africa, and far higher rates in the vaccine-producing countries.
There are enormous global risks. The
Delta variant is now surging through Africa, auguring a monumental catastrophe unless immunization coverage is dramatically accelerated.
Moreover, new variants with a greater ability to evade the existing vaccines may soon emerge. And the global anti-vax movement and disinformation campaigns have spurred vaccine hesitancy, which means that, even when doses are available, uptake falls well below comprehensive adult coverage.
In short, we are still profoundly unsafe — everywhere. The 4 million confirmed COVID-19 deaths to date (excess death figures indicate that actual deaths are probably many times higher) are the tragic result of the world’s failure to respond to COVID-19 with clarity, cooperation and compassion. The G7 pledge last month to donate 870 million doses, enough to immunize about 435 million people fully, remains far short of a global plan.
It is imperative that the G20 members come together and act to provide the needed vaccines. The world’s health depends on what happens in Venice this weekend.