Brown makes call for a G7 vaccine push
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 primaryfocusoftheg7summit, which starts on June 11 in Cornwall.
US president Joe Biden is expected to attend the event, along with the other G7 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU.
Writing in The Guardian, Mr Brown says 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 sub-saharan Africa have been injected.
"Immunising the West but only a fraction of the developing world is already fuelling allegations of 'vaccine apartheid', and will leave Covid-19 spreading, mutating and threatening the lives and livelihoods of us all for years to come."
Vaccines are shared internationally under the World Health Organisation-backed Covax programme, which is working to provide vaccines for low and middle-income countries.