Former PM in call for G7 to commit £22bn to vaccination drive

The G7 nations should commit £22 billion a year as part of a “Herculean” push for global vaccination, Gordon Brown has said.

The former prime minister has called for the mass vaccination of the world to be the primary focus of the G7 summit, which starts on June 11 in Cornwall.

US president Joe Biden is expected to attend, along with the other G7 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU.

Mr Brown said the G7 nations must spearhead a “Herculean mobilisation” of pharmaceutical companies, national militaries and health workers to reach the “greatest number of people in the shortest time across the widest geography.”

He writes: “As things stand, affluent countries accounting for 18% of the world’s population have bought 4.6 billion doses – 60% of confirmed orders.

“About 780 million vaccines have been administered to date, but less than 1% of the population of subSaharan Africa have been injected.”

Mr Brown said the issue is not a shortage in the number of vaccines, but the “shortage of money to pay for them”, adding that the funds needed to end the global crisis “are a fraction of the trillions Covid is costing us”.